Shreds of lives
by FromAnotherWorld
Summary: What starts with an attempt on Star Wolf s lives will cause chaos in more than just their own lives, end, destroy or save them and it will make them experience long forgotten feelings or things they didn t believe themselves capable of feeling. OCs
1. Right out of the blue

I am not a native speaker so if some phrase I used seems odd or incorrect this should give a reason for any stupid or embarrassing mistake I´ve certainly made. Now that I´ve warned you I hope you´ll still read my fanfic.

**Shreds of lives**

What starts with an attempt on StarWolf´s lives will cause chaos in more than just their own lives, end, destroy or save them and it will make them experience long forgotten feelings or things they didn´t believe themselves capable of feeling. OC´s: some hit men, two girls who are not what they seem to be and a prisoner

**Right out of the blue**

"No! No! No! That film was trash! Absolutely!"

"Maybe, but Gisele Harris was really hot in it.", Panther contradicted his teammate.

"Well, if you consider the only criterion for a good film the size of the girls´ face-breasts and the sex-scenes you really ought to stick to your porn."

"Now, now, the rest wasn´t that bad either, was is?"

"Yes it was.", Leon replied.

"Seriously? What´s wrong with it?"

"Well, that´s exactly the point. It´s wrong! The whole shit is wrong!"

"Why wrong?", Panther ask in his usual calm voice not quite understanding his friends aversion to the movie but he had to admit that he really mainly had concentrated on Gisele´s breasts and not so much on the plot. Wolf meanwhile only paid attention to his two friends´ argument with half an ear taking a sip from his drink. For a short moment he realized that he suddenly felt a little uneasy as if someones eyes were on him but he cast this feeling aside wondering if he was getting paranoid after all. It was quite possible that someone had just looked into his direction – they were in a bar and there were a lot of people – but this didn´t mean anything.

"Because everything is wrong starting with the leading actor dying at least ten times."

"Actually he didn´t die, did he?"

"That´s exactly the point. He should have.", Leon explained impatiently. Sometimes he really wondered how stupid a single person could be.

"Why should he have died? Don´t you like him or something? What´s the matter anyway? You complain about him dying ten times and you complain about him not dying at all. Honestly, what do you want?" But Panther seemed to always manage to exceed his worst assumptions.

"No, dumb-ass, it´s not about me liking him or not. It´s about him jumping down about twenty-five meters or something and just getting up again. It´s about him getting fatally injured several times and about him loosing about ten liters of blood. He oughta be dead after the first twenty minutes. There are no ten liters of blood in a body, so you can´t possibly get them out of it – or is that beyond you?"

"Alright... and since when is a lot of blood any problem?"

"Did you just listen?! There is nothing wrong with a lot of blood. I absolutely love blood. But if it´s more blood than there is in a body you oughta bleed several people."

"So you don´t like it because it´s not realistic? Well, it´s a film. Does it need to be perfectly realistic?" At last he got his point now.

"It needs to be at least a little realistic. There are no ten liters of blood in a body. If you want ten liters of blood in a body you´ll have to get them in somehow first – maybe using a mass of blood supplies – but I don´t think that would work too well, would it? Hey, one should try that!"

"No, Leon, none should try that. It´s not too interesting." Panther contradicted him.

"Sure it is. Provided that you manage to get enough blood in, what would happen? I guess the vessels would just burst leading to internal bleedings." Leon took a short moment to consider this. Yes, that was what would happen most probably. The heart was stronger than the vessels so it wouldn´t just stop when there was too much blood for it to contract. Therefore the vessels would have to burst if it was possible to get enough blood in without it spurting out again immediately. However, this was a purely theoretical matter. There were easier and more amusing methods of killing a person and/or of causing unbearable pain to them.

"Alright. I absolutely don´t care what would happen if you do so." Panther really didn´t think the topic was changing for the better but he was used to the lizard by now.

"How do you think would too much blood in your vessels bursting them feel?" Well, he was used to the lizard, yet he sometimes found him quite creepy.

"Well, Leon, I don´t care and I don´t intend to find out."

"That´s a pity ´cause you´d be a nice guinea pig." Leon shot Panther a malicious grin that made the feline flinch even though he knew his sick-minded friend wasn´t too serious.

"I am not a guinea pig. When will you ever get this into your stupid brain?" No the topic definitely wasn´t changing for the better.

"Well, I merely said that it would be interesting.", Leon reasoned but Panther decided that it was time to end this conversation as it was starting to get on his nerves and as he had just spotted a hot scantily dressed female tiger.

"Alright, you can consider that on your own. I am going over there and...", he said getting up meaningfully hinting at said female.

"To that tiger-chick? Really? Does she have big enough face-breasts?"

"Oh, come on! She´s really hot and her breasts are just perfect." Panther took a closer look at the brightly yellow-furred tiger with her perfect curves, her long eyelashes, and thick, wavy reddish brown hair. No there was definitely nothing wrong with her outlook and her breasts were actually quite big.

Just as Panther shook his head and was about to leave Leon remarked: "I don´t like her. I think she should die. Do you think she´d be a good guinea pig?"

"No certainly not. Just – alright – I am going!"

"I think I´ve just chased him off." Leon remarked casually shrugging his shouldners.

"Yeah, looks like you have.", Wolf replied. He was all too used to his two friends ongoing little disagreements but how could it be different? In fact it was a miracle that they basically got along with each other albeit they were the exact opposite of each other in so many ways. But however different the both of them might be this never lead to any problems during missions or in any combat-situation. Actually Star Wolf was a better mercenary squadron consisting of the three of them than it had been when Pigma and Oikony still had been on the team. As simple as it might seem the main reason for this was them trusting each other and being able to fully rely on every team-member. They were good because they were friends and wouldn´t let each other down when it really counted. An incomplete team that could actually operate as a team was far better than a bunch of selfish idiots.

"He just doesn´t have any good taste in anything.", Leon noted looking over at Panther who was trying to flirt up the tiger-girl.

"Nah, what´s wrong? I mean the film was trash but what´s wrong with that chick?"

"Arrogant little bitch." Leon hissed shooting her a look of disgust.

"Who cares? She´s only for one night." Wolf shrugged. Leon was quite sure she was a rather unpleasant person but Wolf was right – she was only for one night.

Wolf was just about to answer when something distracted him. He sensed something alarming he had felt before today but this time he didn´t ignore his premonition and abruptly turned round to see someone in the crowd hastily lower her eyes.

She was a sandy-colored jackal whose slightly brownish blond hair fell over her face now that she had lowered her head in a futile effort to be invisible. What startled him a little about her was that she seemed to be completely out of place here. Even though the room was quite stuffy she had her jacket wrapped tightly around her acting like someone very anxious drawing everyones attention to her by desperately trying to be inconspicuous. But also apart from her odd behavior the decent but pretty girl didn´t look like anyone you´d find in the sort of bar they were in.

Just as Wolf was about to turn round again regarding her as completely harmless she shyly lifted her head her shining blue eyes staring at him making him stop for a moment. He thought to have seen those eyes before – they just shouldn´t be blue – however the girl was absolutely alien to him. How could he have seen her eyes in another color without being able to figure out which color it was but not her? It made no sense. Maybe he really was getting paranoid.

"Wolf?", Leon ask his attention also drawn to the strange girl who hastily turned round again wrapping her jacket even a little tighter around her body. "Anything the matter?"

"No it´s just... a little strange."

"Well she´s certainly not here for fun or to relax." Leon concluded. However, she might just be waiting for someone she wasn´t actually eager to see for whatever reason. Nothing they needed to bother about.

Yet Leon couldn´t help realizing that something bothered Wolf he just wasn´t quite sure what it was. "You sure nothing´s wrong?", Leon inquired as Wolf slowly turned round getting his eye off the jackal-girl.

Wolf shrugged. He wasn´t quite sure himself if anything was wrong. "No it´s nothing. I just thought for a moment I had seen her eyes somewhere before but couldn´t remember the girl herself and something was strange about their color. I thought it should be different."

"Right. How much did you drink?" Leon hadn´t paid any attention to the girl´s eyes further than realizing that they had been widened in fright yet a little curious as she had been staring at them.

"Hell, I never said this was of any importance. She might just have reminded me of someone, alright! I really don´t give a damn!"

"I never said you did. I just doubted you were sober." Wolf´s eye narrowed as he looked at his long-term friend not quite sure what he was getting at but who cared. The reptile wasn´t about to hint anything further and Wolf didn´t mind changing the topic.

xxx

Time went by fast and if Wolf had still been sober before he certainly wasn´t anymore by the time they decided to head back to their base. He was swaying a little as he got up and also Panther had drunk a few glasses too much which left Leon to be the only of them you couldn´t tell by looking at that he was just about to exit a bar.

In fact he preferred to keep a clear mind and rejected to any kind of mind-altering substance in his system. This didn´t mean he never drunk any alcohol but he didn´t like to get completely drunk as he absolutely disliked to lose track of things and needed to be in control of the situation which was important in more than just one way. Other than Wolf one could actually call him paranoid among a great many other things.

"No luck with that tiger-chick? She brushed you off?", Wolf inquired as Panther approached the two of them again.

"Na, I´ve never been brushed off by any female. You know I can...", Panther contradicted him looking back at the tiger who was excitedly talking into her mobile phone only shortly looking up smiling at him. She hadn´t actually brushed him off, had she? When she had said she regretted still being busy today it had sounded absolutely honest.

"Panther. You really have a selective memory, don´t ya."

"My memory is just fine, guys, there´s nothing wrong with it, but I simply can seduce every girl easily and...", he tried to put clear but was interrupted once more this time by Leon.

"Well no one said there was anything wrong with your memory in principle."

"He just said it."

"No you simply don´t remember things you couldn´t reconcile with your self-respect. This is no fault of your memory but of your perception of yourself and of your values."

"Aw, fine so now it´s not just my memory that doesn´t work properly but me in general?" Why the hell was that lizard absolutely unable to find any other pastime but annoying him today?

"Yep. That´s exactly my point. Your memory might be quite normal but the rest of you is very poor."

"Alright I´d agree there but why is his memory normal if he keeps forgetting stuff?" Wolf wondered.

"The mind is a tricky thing, isn´t it? It got many protective mechanisms that might make you forget stuff which can´t be reconciled with your perception of yourself or that would harm your pride too much."

"So you say being rejected by a girl would be this traumatizing to him?"

"Well, yes, to him it obviously is. Though that´s a rather boring..." Leon intended to say but Panther wasn´t eager to listen to him.

"No not that shit again! Leon, please, not everyone always gets traumatized, badly hurt, tortured or whatever.", he interrupted him rather impatiently.

"Well, everyone I know does." Leon insisted

"Yes... but that´s just because you know them, right?" Wolf noted.

"Yep, that could be the reason."

"So you actually can´t generalize that."

"Alright Leon, never again complain about me just thinking of the ever same thing all day long." Panther put clear hoping to end this conversation.

"That´s true. The both of you always have just one thing on their minds, it´s just a different thing, and I am stuck with both of you idiots.", Wolf said as they stepped outsides feeling the biting cold wind in their faces. Even though Panther was a bit annoyed about his teammate and hadn´t actually got the tiger-chick all of them basically were in a good mood and quite laid-back until many things happened almost at the same moment.

Leon spotted a red dot on Wolf traveling up to his forehead but before he could react and push Wolf aside something else bumped into them and they all fell over alongside two other people unintentionally taking cover behind some parking cars. Next thing they noticed was the sound of hasty footsteps and a shot and then panic broke out around them.

"What the fuck?!", Wolf yelled drawing his blaster he had always with him.

"Stay down. Snipers and you´re drunk.", Leon hissed peering into the direction he assumed the gunman was in though knowing he would most probably be too far away for him to shoot him only having his blaster.

"Where did that come from?" Panther wanted to know crouching on his belly also his blaster in his hands. Though he was used to laser fire and battles he was a little shocked due to the sudden attack.

"On that roof over there." Leon had spotted a slim figure in a black coat in the distance aiming at them but doubted this was the only hit man. He crawled to the other end of the car to have a better aim hoping the distant figure wouldn´t be able to see his dark shape next to the black car in the night. The chameleon took a deep breath and calmly adjusted his blaster knowing that this might be his only chance. He was gifted with a very steady hand but blasters weren´t made to take out enemies in great distance and the position he was crouching in wasn´t perfect to aim either. Letting another moment pass Leon shot but missed the figure on the roof by a few inches. "Fuck!", Leon hissed hastily taking cover behind the car again as a laser-beam hit the ground where his head had been just a moment ago.

They needed to find a way to escape or to get rid of that hit man but both of it seemed a little complicated right now. "Missed him?", Panther ask as Leon crawled to the other side of the car again and shot it´s door open. He ducked inside the car trying once more.

"Panther get your head down!", Wolf yelled as he saw someone step out of the shadows drawing a blaster on them. With an astonished yelp the feline rolled to the side while Wolf fired at the attacker recognizing the jackal-girl illuminated by the laser-beam. A shot flew vaguely into their direction as she quickly took cover again.

For a short moment Wolf was a little puzzled. The scared little girl so much out of place in the bar hadn´t looked as if she even knew how to handle a weapon. If she had been there to kill them why the hell had she been behaving so strangely? She definitely was no professional.

However, Wolf had little time to consider this because a hound jumped out from behind a corner on the other side shooting at them but missing. This time Panther was first to react and one of his laser-beams hit the dogs chest. "Damn, there´s a fucking lot of them!", Wolf cursed still looking at the corner the jackal had disappeared behind in case she´d risk another attempt to kill them.

Wolf spun around as he heard an agonized gasp from his comrade inside the car. "Leon! You alright?!" Leon pressed one hand to his shoulder where red liquid was leaking from a wound. The chameleon had fallen to the ground screwing his eyes shut.

"Am fine. Just missed that fucking idiot again." With a groan Leon got back into a halfway sitting position creeping into the back of the car. "Can anyone switch those fucking street-lamps off?" As long as it was lighter here than on the roof the hit man could possibly see him through the windows.

With a few shots Wolf and Panther put the nearby lights out, occasionally missing one due to the level of alcohol in their blood but finally enabled Leon to get into the right position to aim without being a target one couldn´t miss. Once more the lizard tried to shoot the figure on the roof hitting his arm this time. "Hit! Though not killed I suppose.", he exclaimed as the distant hit man fell to the ground.

"Alright are there any more snipers? ´Cause it´s high time we get outa here.", Wolf ask looking around himself unable to spot anyone wondering who intended to kill them this time.

"I can´t see anyone on the roofs but there could be someone inside the buildings.", Leon considered while getting out of the car. Staying as much in cover as possible he crept to the corner where the hound lay suffocating in his own blood. "How many of you fools..." Leon intended to ask but at this moment the dog´s struggle for air ended and his body went limp. "Fuck! How am I supposed to..." Leon´s cursing was interrupted by a bearded vulture and a vampire firing at him and he jumped in between two of the parking cars.

Also Wolf and Panther hurried to take cover returning fire. However, they missed both hit men and the bird and the vampire disappeared behind a corner again. Wolf came out from in between the cars approaching the corner staying ducked. He intended to get into a better position to kill both enemies should they try once more but disregarded the other side of the street which almost cost his life.

A huge wolverine and a thorny devil showed up but Panther and Leon managed to force them behind the next wall again. "Watch out! You being drunk doesn´t entitle you to act absolutely stupid!", Leon yelled at him.

"Fine so are we just supposed to sit here and wait?! We gota get away from here and fast!", Wolf retorted as the sounds of sirens in the distance grew audible confirming his words. They were busy enough dealing with the hit men but definitely couldn´t use any police to show up.

All four currently present hit men hurried to covers they could aim from at the same time forcing Wolf to leap over a car not to get shot but he didn´t know if that made him be an easy target for possible snipers. Laser beams were fired into all different directions but all of them where either far or closely off. "No snipers I guess!", Wolf shouted for his teammates to hear him in spite of the noise.

"Yeah, that´s a fine way to find out!", Leon shouted back scoring a hit. With a cry the bearded vulture stumbled but the shot hadn´t been deadly. "Got one! But there are still at least three and a half left! Two half counting the sniper!"

"Maybe four or more! That jackal must be somewhere too!", Wolf replied. A laser-beam flew past him missing his head only by a few inches. He aimed at the wolverine but missed. Fuck! He really shouldn´t have drunk that much.

Meanwhile the vulture retreated behind the next corner crimson blood gushing out of a wound at the side of his belly. The three mercenaries continued shooting at their enemies but they were running out of time and didn´t manage to kill any opponent.

Leon lay down behind a car aiming and shot at the wolverine´s foot. His target fell down with a cry but pulled his injured leg out of Leon´s view. "Two and two half!", he counted the remaining enemies. However, the previously distant sirens weren´t that distant anymore and he could tell that they´d only have a few minutes at the very most before they´d probably get into more trouble. Why were those fucking hit men not retreating themselves? They couldn´t use any police either, could they? "Wolf?!"

"Yeah! Fuck! Let´s shoot those fools at least on one side down and try get outa here!" However, this didn´t seem to be necessary as the hit men seemed to have finally decided to take to their heels. As he couldn´t hear any further shots Wolf slowly peered around making sure there indeed was no hit man left waiting for them. At least he couldn´t see any. "Alright guys, it´s high time we get going."

"Wolf get your fucking head down! You don´t know if they´re not still round the corner!", Leon hissed as his drunk friend stood up serving as a perfect target for anyone who would still intend to kill them. The chameleon crept to the corner keeping hidden behind the cars as much as possible. "Fine, here´s no one.", he confirmed before they carefully made their way to it and run off even though none of them was actually keen on running right now. Wolf had dripped two times, Panther found the air far too cold for running anyway as it stung in his lungs and Leon got distracted by his still bleeding shoulder even though he knew it was too early to drop his guard.

xxx

"Does anyone have any idea what that was for?", Panther wondered. By now there was enough distance between them and the street where the fight had taken place so there was no need to hurry anymore. Still they couldn´t wait to get back to their base and feel save again. Why had anyone known where they had been in the first place? Who in particular had an interest in their death this time? Was it a matter they needed to further worry about? So many questions seemed to stay unanswered. And all three team members were too tired to think them over clearly.

"Let´s just make sure we get back alive for now and deal with the rest later.", Wolf suggested but stopped thinking he had just seen a movement in the corner of his eye. Alarmed he spun round and run into the filthy alley where he believed to have spotted something.

"Wolf?", Panther and Leon ask a little worried themselves now but Wolf ignored his confused friends observantly scanning the area for what he had seen. Just as his eye focused on a tilted dustbin and he took a step towards it some slim figure jumped out from behind it attempting to run off but he grabbed her arm.

Only for the fraction of a second the jackal-girl´s widened intensely blue eyes stared into his in shock before he forcefully tried to twist her arm to her back and she thrust her knee hard in between his legs where it hurt and drew back.

With a groan Wolf bent over while the female was thrown to the ground as a result of her own try to pull free. She rolled over and hastily sprinted into another alley before Wolf was able to follow her. "Fuck! Fucking bitch!"

"If I´m not mistaken she´s the second one today to de-ball you – this time literally?", a sniggering voice from behind wanted to know.

"Ow, just shut up Leon. That´s fucking not funny. Shit! Fuck that bitch!"

"Fuck that bitch? I´d rather torture her instead. May I do that too? Otherwise you´ll have to ask Panther."

"Yeah, whatever, either way is fine. Ouch. Where´s she gone anyway." Wolf stood up and walked toward the alley the girl had disappeared in. Thrusting her knee into his manhood was about the only thing she had done so far that had not been amateurish – it fucking hurt!

"I dunno. Seems she´s gone and not either way is fine.", Panther responded who had gone ahead looking around. "Besides, what´s wrong with you today – not that you wouldn´t alway be, well, insane– but today you really don´t say a single sentence that´s not about you wanting to torture someone. Honestly that´s really pathological.", he added addressing Leon.

"Withdrawal-symptoms. Hadn´t had much opportunity lately.", Leon explained looking for the jackal too. However, she really seemed to be gone and it wasn´t very likely that there would be any point in following her now plus he was tired his shoulder hurt and was still bleeding a little and he wanted to get back to their base.

"Alright but what was she doing here anyway. I mean, if she wanted to shoot us why did she follow us then all the way, if she did, and didn´t just, well, shoot us.", Panther considered.

"Well, fact is, she drew a blaster on us during the fight and she somewhat behaved strange before.", Wolf explained not sure himself how or if she fitted into the entire situation.

"True, she behaved strange but not the way someone would behave who intended to kill us plus all the other hit men looked like professionals and she clearly is none. Furthermore, there would not be any reason for them to involve anyone like her in their assassination attempt. Yet she seems to be involved somehow – which is strange. And them and her being there at the same time would be a rather unlikely coincidence. And, I´ll have to agree with Panther, there would have been better opportunities for her to kill us."

"So the both of you don´t think she wants to kill us? I know that´s all a bit odd but she did try, didn´t she?"

"Maybe she was there to kill us, maybe not, but shouldn´t we rather worry about the other hit men? And when it comes to her wanting to kill us – unlikely – when she looked at you in the bar she didn´t look like anyone who had a personal reason to kill us and she didn´t look like wanting to kill. When it comes to her trying to kill us – maybe – but there would need to be some reason and she´s not a professional and unlikely to have enough of a grudge against us – yet there could be a reason. Still from what we know it would make little sens."

"Maybe you´re right. Let´s get back to our base and consider the rest tomorrow.", Wolf decided. It really was no use now and he didn´t even know why it particularly bothered him. If anyone would ever succeed in ending their lives this one was unlikely to be the little jackal-girl. For some reason her eyes came to his mind again. He knew he had seen them before but he hadn´t seen her before, however he didn´t know why this would be of any importance. And again he wondered why her eyes were blue. They should be of another color. There was something he associated with her eyes, something that felt strange, but he had no idea what it was, not even if it was a good or a bad thing – maybe it was a little of both.

Panther on the other hand was far less lost in thoughts but already halfway sleeping while walking. He was a little fed up with the course things had taken but too tired to actually worry about it and Leon would rather worry about the actual attempt on their lives and not about some incompetent female who also played some part in it – which was somewhat interesting but not their main problem. Something made him think that they would still have further trouble with whoever hired the hit men but he couldn´t figure out who this might have been and decided to postpone it till tomorrow. He was also tired and hated his shoulder and the sniper and had enough trouble trying not to drop his guard just in case there was still anyone around trying to kill them.

So what do you think? Please let me have your genuine opinion about both how bad my English is and if I´ve made any severe mistakes or written something I can´t possibly have meant and how much you liked\disliked the plot etc. Any review is appreciated.

I´ve been writing another story too and am still indecisive which one to continue or if I´ll continue both. However, I´ve almost finished the next chapter so it should be up soon.


	2. A dubious mission

Alright. As I won´t be here for a while, I´ll put this chapter up even though no one reads this story. Should anyone happen to read this in the meanwhile I´d appreciate you to review. If no one reviews I guess this story is gonna be dead.

**Shreds of Lives**

**a dubious mission**

"Stop wriggling about"

"Then do that properly."

"I am doing that properly. Don´t be such a pussy, Leon." Wolf was trying to disinfect and bandage the wound on Leon´s shoulder that had become dirty during the fight but it wasn´t that easy without the lizard putting one bit of effort into keeping still.

"You´re not. Get lost. I can do that myself better." Leon complained trying to push Wolf away from him.

"Fine, if you think so." Wolf replied though bandaging ones own shoulder could be a little difficult but if Leon believed it would work better this way he should try.

"See, I can. You´re simply incapable of everything and drunk." In fact it didn´t make any difference. The stupid liquid still stung and feeling pain himself was something Leon didn´t like at all.

"And you´re a pussy."

"Well, at least I am not incapable of everything and drunk."

"But Wolf is right there, isn´t he. You´re a pussy. Besides the only one you can be careful with is yourself.", Panther joined in.

"Yep, but I only hurt whom I want to hurt – which is about everyone – but that still means that he is incompetent whereas I am not." Leon explained getting a small pebble out of his wound mentally cursing the disinfectant. Fucking stone! Fucking disinfectant! And fucking hit men!

"And being incompetent is worse than being an insane pussy?", Panther inquired.

"Well, yes, and actually you´re not less of a pussy than I am, are you."

"Actually I´m quite sure I am plus I am not insane." the feline explained casually.

"No you´re not insane. However, you´re dim. Being a dim pussy is worse than being an insane pussy and additionally you´re just as incompetent as he is."

"We must be a fine team then. Two incompetent, two pussies, one insane and one dim. I wonder how we survived till that day if it´s really that awful." Panther pointed out with a smile on his face.

"Our enemies are just even more incompetent than the two of you and who said they were no pussies and, well, no, they´re not more dim than you and definitely not more insane than me for neither of it is really possible." Leon reasoned and finally finished cleaning his wound which was a relief. Still fucking sniper! Now he´d somehow have to bandage his shoulder.

"So the whole population of the Lylat System consists of incompetent, dim pussies – at least according to you? Or is it just our enemies?"

"Yes that´s how you could sum it up. And it´s the whole population not just our enemies." Alright, the bandages weren´t perfect but it would do in the end.

"And you are absolutely sure it wouldn´t be easier if I did that?", Wolf inquired watching the lizard struggle with the bandages.

"Fine, but do it properly." It would be easier, definitely, though it would work like this as well but Leon was tired and simply wanted to go to sleep.

"I´m going to bed. We got nothing important to do tomorrow morning, do we?", Panther wanted to know. He hated getting up early and after that night he´d hate it even more.

"No, we won´t be too busy tomorrow. Not a lot to do lately anyway and it doesn´t seem to change unless we get further trouble with those hit men and have to take them out.", Wolf replied and ask addressing Leon: "So is that properly enough for you now?"

"Seems to be fine but this doesn´t change anything about you being incompetent. And now I am going to bed too." And so was Wolf. The day had been tiring and he could barely keep his eye open hoping to sleep soundly tonight.

xxx

However, this wish didn´t seem to come true as Wolf found himself in a strange dream this night. He was running through shadowy blurred streets covered by ice and snow. A rough snowstorm and dense white fog made it almost impossible to see.

Wolf ran after some hardly visible shape without knowing who it was or why he was following it. He had his blaster drawn, ready to fire. The silhouette often slipped out of his vision, however some inner voice always told him where to go.

It was biting cold and he had lost any sense of time which made it impossible to tell for how long he had been running as the streets and buildings suddenly were gone and he stood in a barren white landscape seeing the figure in the distance stop abruptly and turn towards him. Also he had stopped running, nevertheless the shape came closer and closer as if the distance between them was melting away enabling him to recognize her once of a sudden. Bright blue eyes intensely stared at him showing the same observant expression of shy curiosity and fear he had seen in them in the bar. However, the jackal´s hair seemed to stay somehow untouched by the violent snowstorm which made her seem a little unreal.

Just as he did she also had her blaster drawn but lowered. Something told him that she was the enemy and he had to shoot her but instead the both of them just kept staring at each other. There was so much expression in her eyes yet they seemed withdrawn as if she was hiding behind a mental wall. On first sight her icy eyes seemed cold but there was something very warm below the surface.

Wolf slowly rose his blaster with the jackal-girl simultaneously copying his movements. Then they stood there facing each other blasters pointed at their opponent´s face. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. As she opened them again she seemed to be a different person but at first Wolf couldn´t tell what had changed until he realized that the brightly shining light in her eyes was gone replaced by a much calmer but determined one. They seemed far less strange now, however with the strangeness also the odd fascination was gone as she looked at him out of green eyes, far less cold, less withdrawn, yet something else was different too.

As simultaneously as they had drawn their blasters on each other they pulled the trigger. Two shots rang out the same time but never reached their target. The girl and the laser-beams disappeared the same moment. Wolf was confused turning round and searching for the jackal.

The howling storm was the only thing audible and Wolf begun to feel as if it wasn´t him who was turning but the landscape. A panic feeling begun to emerge in his heart but faded away as he saw the shape again in front of him. She came closer the same way she had done the first time looking at him out of her shining blue eyes but again she blinked changing her eyes into a much darker green than last time, leafing a very calm and self-confident expression in them that absolutely didn´t suit the original girl but made her seem rather repulsive to him.

Again he rose his blaster but this time her try to copy the move was too slow. He pulled the trigger hitting her chest. The girls body was thrown to the ground, however it became slightly transparent and two more of her suddenly appeared next to her dead version looking at him one out of blue eyes the other out of green ones.

Wolf looked at her dead body with satisfaction not knowing why he had been so eager to kill her but the other two jackals distracted him making him draw his eyes from the limp body facing the two remaining enemies but he didn´t even bother to aim at first. They just looked at him as they had done before determined familiar eyes and nervous blue ones meeting his. Slowly he rose his blaster watching the green-eyed jackal do the same while the icy-eyed version turned round and vanished in the snowstorm. He was distracted for a moment when two shots rang out.

Wolf woke with a start and almost fell out of bed. Stupid dream! What the fuck had he been dreaming?! Looking at his clock he found out that it was only about 5am. What had been wrong with her eyes in his dream? The other versions had looked much more... he didn´t know how. Fuck that dream! It didn´t matter how her eyes had looked; it fucking didn´t matter. What mattered was that he now was awake due to the fucking girl´s fucking eyes and would probably be tired for the rest of the day as it was already too late for him to fall asleep anymore plus he didn´t know how to pass the time till the day would actually start.

Realizing that he was sweaty and his mind was still blurred he decided that he might need a shower and went into the bathroom. Yesterday he had dropped himself on the bed fully dressed which might be the reason why he had been sweating and thus not been sleeping well – why had it been cold in that fucking dream then? Fuck that dream! It didn´t matter why.

Still groggy Wolf got undressed realizing with much dislike the bruises the girl´s knee had caused when she had thrust it into his manhood. Fucking bitch! And again he was thinking of her and that stupid dream which he had intended not to do. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

In order to keep his mind from wondering Wolf hurried to get into the shower and at least for a moment he managed to focus on nothing till he focused on the bruises again. This was a damn bad place for bruises.

xxx

Also Leon woke up quite abruptly and quite early this day. The first moment he was startled because he had no idea what had woken him up till he realized his aching shoulder he had bumped into the wall while turning round when sleeping. How did that happen? He usually didn´t move a lot when sleeping. Never mind. He just decided it was late enough for him to get up anyway although they had gone to bed rather late the day before and it hadn´t exactly been a very relaxing day.

Leon got out of bed and got changed deciding to have a look if any of the others was already up but he doubted it. Panther never got up early and he didn´t think Wolf would after what had happened yesterday. However, this assumption turned out to be wrong. "You´re awake? Is anything of any importance going on?" Leon ask more casually than actually thinking anything could have happened since Wolf had woken up but he was mistaken again.

"Indeed, there is, but I´m not sure what to think of it."

"So what is it?" Leon wanted to know more curious now. It had been far too long since they had had their last mission or anything interesting had happened apart from the attempt on their lives the previous day.

"We´ve been offered a mission, but not been told what it is so far." the lupine explained looking at the screen narrowing his eye.

"So when will we be told? Will we take it? How´s the pay? Do we have at least a vague idea what it´ll be or do we at least know who wants to hire us?"

"One thing after the other. I´ve not yet decided if we´ll take it. The pay is pretty good – must be some important thing – but the offer is a bit dubious and I don´t know what to think of it. We´ve been told a place to go to to find out what it is about but other than that we don´t know a thing." This wouldn´t be the first dubious mission they took but something about it made Wolf be hesitant. It was risky, however they had done far more risky things before and it was time they did their job again that´s why he´d probably take it.

"And where is that place?"

"It´s a space station near the sector X nebula in fact and if we consider taking the job we should show up there in three days time." Wolf explained assuming that Leon wouldn´t like it much more than him.

"A space station – pretty – so that we can´t leave that easily if things go wrong?" Not that a space station would have been an unusual place but it wasn´t their preferred one.

"That´s exactly what I had been concerned about. We don´t know what to expect or how to prepare for possible complications and those guys don´t seem too trustworthy. So what do you think?"

"I think we should wake Panther up so that we don´t have to talk it all over again and decide then. Not that I would actually care about his opinion but I´d like to wake him up." Leon suggested.

"Yeah, and what do you think about the mission?" Why couldn´t Leon stick to the topic now? After all it had been mainly him who had been impatiently waiting for a new mission or maybe rather for any chance to kill something.

"I think we should consider this once Panther has been woken up. It´s getting later while we´re talking and he mightn´t be tired anymore if he gets waken up later or he might wake up by himself." Leon insisted making Wolf role his eye impatiently.

"Alright fine. And is there any reason why you need to wake him up so badly now and can´t concentrate on that mission?"

"I´m sadistic." Leon pointed out a fact that everyone knew.

"No you´re childish."

"And why´s that a contradiction?"

"I never said it was. Fine go wake him up." Wolf agreed. After all arguing about it wouldn´t spare any time and they´d need to inform Panther about the mission anyway therefore Leon could quite as well wake the feline up so that none of the three would have a nice awaking this day.

The next moment the lizard was gone sneaking into Panther´s bedroom who was, other than Wolf, obviously having a rather nice dream so far. " Hmm, babe, that´s good." he sighed in sleep. Perfect! He was obviously dreaming. Maybe it´d be possible to alter that dream a little.

"Look at that chick more closely, Panther. Don´t you see that she in fact isn´t beautiful at all? She´s far too old and look at her gigantic mouth with all the crooked yellowish teeth. It´s really disgusting and I´m sure she got syphilis. Hopefully you didn´t forget to use a condom.", the chameleon forcefully explained to the dreaming panther making him flinch in sleep.

"And can´t you smell her awful stink?", he went on placing an old smelly sock he had found on the floor on the feline´s nose nastily smirking to Panther´s now uneasy sleep. He´d really badly like to know what pictures were in the feline´s head right now.

xxx

Panther indeed was enjoying his dream. Without knowing or caring how he had got there he was in bed with the hot tiger-chick he had met in the bar the other day. However, while he was having sex with her he suddenly blinked and couldn´t recognize her anymore. It was as if she had grown older about forty years within a second. In shock the appalled feline stared at her now disfigured monstrous face that had been the epitome of beauty just a moment ago.

Disgustedly Panther looked down on his body for some reason being absolutely sure she´d infect him with multiple sexual diseases and realized in fright he hadn´t even been using a condom. Shit! Now he´d have to die! He´d die of that monster above of him whose breath smelt like a whole basket full of socks someone had been wearing for more than a week.

Panther simply lay there frozen with horror as the disgusting monster bent over digging her gigantic venomous teeth into his shoulder. The feline yelped in fright and tried in vain to push his attacker off. Her teeth continued invading his shoulder soaking the mattress with blood. He cried out and finally managed to push the monstrous tiger off but she pressed him down and her sharp teeth closed around his penis.

Screaming in horror the feline fell out of bed realizing in puzzlement that he suddenly was lying on the floor of his bedroom. What the fuck had just happened?! Gasping for breath Panther made sure his penis still was where it was meant to be realizing with great relief that nothing had happened to it. However, he could feel a stinging pain in his shoulder.

Looking at it he could indeed spot marks of teeth, however, not of gigantic crooked ones but of small pointed ones. Still completely out of breath he looked up to see a green scaly chameleon leaning against the wall with a diabolic smirk on his face. "Leon! What the fuck?!" Panther exclaimed outraged looking alternately at the lizard and at the scratches on his shoulder.

"What the hell was that for?!", the infuriated feline yelled at the grinning chameleon.

"Nothing. You´ve overslept." the lizard giggled a gleeful gleam in his eyes.

"Oh fuck you, Leon! And what? What the fuck is that?!" The outraged cat had found an old sock lying on the floor beside him and angrily threw it at Leon. "WHAT IS THAT?!"

"That´s a sock." Leon told him completely factually.

"Fuck you Leon! I know that that´s a sock! And what was that sock doing in my face?!"

"Lying there."

"Right! I really had enough of you! Just get lost, will ya?!"

However, the reptile didn´t move an inch but ask matter-of-politely: "Might I inquire what your dream was about?"

"No! You may be absolutely quiet now!" panther shouted in rage.

Hearing the infuriated feline yell at Leon Wolf decided to get up and see what was wrong stopping in the doorway and watching the scene with much dislike. Obviously Panther was really angry with the lizard this time.

"´Cmon. But I´m really curious." Leon ask still wearing an evil smile.

Panther´s gaze meanwhile kept roaming from his shoulder down to his pants over to Leon and back to his shoulder. "What the hell did you do with my shoulder?! And what the hell did you do with my?!" He again looked at his pants. There hadn´t been any marks of teeth, yet there had to be a reason why the monster had bitten his penis off.

"Can´t you figure it out?"

"Course I can! You don´t bite me and you don´t do anything with my penis! Is that clear!?" It wasn´t even so much about the scratches on his shoulder or whatever had happened to his penis. What infuriated Panther so much was that the dream had really freaked him out and that Leon just didn´t get it.

"Hey! The both of you! We might have a mission!" Wolf interrupted them as this argument would change nothing for the better.

"Well, that doesn´t allow him to bite me!" Panther shouted gesturing wildly.

"I don´t need an allowance to bite you." the lizard sneered.

"You don´t bite him and you try to calm down. Would the both of you come now and listen to me?!" Wolf stopped them from quarreling again and turned round this time with both being quiet for a moment and following him. However, Panther kept staring daggers at Leon who was quite pleased with his little success.

"Alright, do you listen now?" Wolf started while they sat down.

"Someone wants to hire us but so far we don´t know what for or who this someone is. However, pay is quite good. In case we take the job we´re meant to meet them at a space station in three days time." Wolf summed up what he had already told Leon.

"And that´s a reason to wake me up?" Panther wanted to know glaring at Leon. "It´s in three days time."

"No but I was bored and that´s a reason to wake you up."

"Just shut up you lunatic idiot." Panther growled angrily and finally didn´t get any annoying reply as Leon finally seemed to have realized he might have gone too far.

"It´s not easy to tell what risks we will be at if we take that job. However, we haven´t really had any good assignments in a while so I was considering it." Wolf tried to draw his team mates attention back to the mission.

"We´d at least need to be very careful as soon as we reached this space station and make sure we don´t get in any stupid situation there we couldn´t get out of anymore and we´d have to make sure they actually pay us afterwards." Leon considered.

"But we won´t know how easy or difficult this will be until we are already there, will we?" Panther inquired.

"No we won´t but we just have to make sure we could escape at any time and only do the job if we got reason to believe we´ll be paid or if we get part of the money in the beforehand." Wolf explained.

"Sounds sensible. So we take it?" Leon wanted to know.

"I can´t find enough of a reason to not at least have a look at it."

"That´s not my preferred kind of employers but I´ll be fine with it." Panther assumed.

"Alright, then we´ll see in three days time."

"Are we finished? ´Cause I need a shower and breakfast." Panther ask and got up again.

xxx

Everything went according to plan. Well, almost everything. Riley had to admit that their first attempt had failed and that they had lost Jeff but the hound had never been a very able or in any other way irreplaceable member. It of course was an annoyance that Star Wolf was still alive and only one of them had been marginally injured but it also had helped Riley to find an old `friend´ again he had thought dead. And when it came to Star Wolf – well, he had a better plan to take them out now.

"Draco, are Morton, Shark and Leila finished with the preparations?" the slender rat ask the skinny vampire standing next to him.

"Almost. There has been a problem with some of the self-aiming guns but I think Elvis helped them to fix it."

"Perfect. Time won´t be a problem and they won´t have the ghost of a chance to escape this time." Riley was really pleased with the new plan. He knew Star Wolf was good but this time he´d be better and he had never had any job before that had been halfway as well paid.

Draco, however, wasn´t thinking of money at that moment. In fact he didn´t even know how much money it´d get them. He was just glad he had met Riley and he finally had friends here. Of course he knew he was Riley´s subordinate but they still were friends. "Were´s you´r girlfriend? Shouldn´t she be back by now." Draco mentioned as it had just come to his attention she was missing.

"You know she tends to take a while." Riley replied dismissively. Draco was right. She should have been back by now but this didn´t worry Riley too much. After all it wasn´t the first time she was late and after all also she wasn´t irreplaceable.

Don´t forget to review! Next chapter will be up in about five weeks time if anyone reviews or not at all if no one reviews.


	3. Worse than expected

Alright, I said this story was dead but I got bored and am very indecisive so here´s the next chapter. Also a few, well very few, people had at least had a look at the first chapter and about half of them at the second one too therefore I assume at least someone read them and maybe one of those will read this chapter as well. If this is the case then ** PLEASE REVIEW**.

**Shreds of lives**

**Worse than expected**

Wolf, Leon and Panther were sitting in their cockpits approaching the space station were they´d hopefully find out about their next mission without getting killed. They had been travelling through space for about half a day now with a stony silence between them most of the time that was a result of Leon´s and Panther´s argument three days ago.

It rarely happened that any member of Star Wolf was angry with another for a longer time as Wolf and Leon hardly ever had any serious dispute with one another and Panther had no problem with taking not too seriously meant insults and usually forgave and forgot quite fast. However, Leon had been a real nuisance in the past few days and the feline was truly fed up with him.

That´s why they had hardly been talking to each other in the past three days. Panther hadn´t wanted to talk to Leon and Leon hadn´t tried to talk to Panther anymore being fed up himself. Wolf had considered the both of them very childish but neither of them cared. However, it wasn´t really the first time they didn´t want to speak to the other and he knew they´d calm down after a while.

Usually Panther was first to make peace again although Leon almost always was the reason why they had fallen out in the first place and this time was no exception.

"Leon?" Panther ask.

No reply.

"C´mon. I´m sorry for ignoring you the past few days and I know you are sorry too although you´d never say so." Panther apologized for actually nothing but he didn´t like the silence between them anymore.

Still no reply.

"Leon, don´t you think we´ve been doing this for long enough now?"

"There´s something coming into view. I think we´ve reached that space station." Leon remarked ignoring Panther.

"Leon, peace again? And no silence?" Panther ask.

"Alright peace and so on. We reached the space station. So what now?", the lizard wanted to know.

"Now we´ll simply fly there and land but be careful." Wolf explained. They came closer to the space station fast and realized it was a quite impressive well armed building. As they were approaching the docking bay they slowed their ships down. "Star Wolf´s here. Asking for permission to land."

A female owl answered their inquiry. "We´ve already been waiting for you. You´ve permission to land." So at least this part had been really easy.

The three Wolfen landed in the docking bay of the space station and the pilots got out of their fighters just as the owl they had been talking to before came through the entrance. "Please follow me." she ask them leading the way.

The members of Star Wolf walked in silence through the dimly lit metal corridors wondering why there wasn´t a single person in the whole building. None of them could actually tell what was wrong but something about the whole situation made them feel really uneasy.

The owl went on for a few more minutes till she took a faster step through a door that fell shut and locked behind her. "Shit! Let´s get out of here!" Wolf yelled feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline as he got aware of the trap they were in and the three of them turned round to spurt towards the entrance but the door closed too.

"It´s a trap." Panther pointed out the obvious and they drew their blasters as they saw hatches in the walls open where guns were in that opened fire on them.

All three of them jumped to the side avoiding the laser beams but there was nowhere to take cover and all they could do was shoot the guns as fast as possible. One gun after another was blasted to pieces but it only took a moment till Leon and Wolf heard Panther cry out and fall to the ground. "Panther!?"they yelled but there was no time to make sure the feline was still alive.

A laser beam hit Wolf´s leg making him fall on his knees with a groan as a searing pain shot through his body but he kept firing knowing that it would seal their fates if he hesitated for a single moment. A few more shots rang out and then it was silent apart from their panting breaths and another yelp from Panther as he sat up. "What the fuck?!" the feline exclaimed.

"You alright?" Wolf ask trying to get up. Blood gushed out of his wound as he put weight on the injured leg but at least the leg wouldn´t give away. Clenching his teeth the lupine cursed taking most of his weight off the injured leg.

"Yes. Ow. I´ll be alright." Panther moaned pressing his hand onto an injury on his upper arm.

"Great. I guess then we should try get out of here before they come up with something more fancy to kill us." Leon suggested in a sarcastic manner.

"The doors look too solid to destroy them with our blasters." Panther noted. "The rest looks too solid too." Yet Wolf shot at the doors but with no more success than expected hitting the wall in frustration which he assumed would leave some bruises on his knuckles should he live long enough for them to form.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he cursed sitting back down. They still were trapped in here and if there was no way to get out destroying the guns hadn´t helped them but only delayed their death. "There must be a way." the lupine insisted but he couldn´t believe his own words.

"But they don´t have anything to kill us anymore now." Panther pointed out.

"They can just let us starve if they lack the required fantasy to find another way of killing us. They don´t need to come here and open the doors to shoot us down or something like that so this doesn´t help us." Leon contradicted his teammate. So it was obvious that waiting wouldn´t get them anywhere. If there was any way to get out of here they´d have to find it. "Or in fact die of thirst. Takes about three to four days considering the moderate temperatures unless we run out of air and suffocate. Seing it from that perspective we might have been stupid to shoot those guns down." the lizard considered.

"Please Leon think of something else." Panther interrupted him and Leon went quiet pacing up and down the metal room.

"We´re stuck in a metal cuboid so there aren´t many things we could try. But there has to be a way." Wolf insisted looking around but he could see nothing but the floor, the walls, the shattered guns, Panther leaning against the opposite wall and Leon pacing up and down and suddenly stopping and looking up. "Leon?" Wolf ask wondering if the lizard had an idea.

"Could any of you help me up there?" Leon ask walking towards the wall and stopped beneath one of the hatches.

"You mean you can get out through that thing?" Panther inquired.

"Am not sure. I need to see it. So would any of you help me now?"

"Alright." Wolf got up and helped Leon to look into the opening where the gun had been but he wasn´t too optimistic this would work. "You see anything that can help us?"

"There is another gun pointed to the other side of the wall where there´s a hatch too. I guess it should be thin enough to damage it with a blaster." Leon explained and fired at the gun which exploded. Then he pushed the remains of the guns out of the way and aimed at the hatch.

"Ow. Don´t drop that on me." Wolf complained as a metal piece hit his head but he was ignored. Leon shot at the hatch which took some damage but wasn´t blasted open. "Does it work?" Wolf wanted to know feeling a new gleam of hope and also Panther got up now to see better.

"Yes. Just needs a few more shots." Leon explained and shot at the hatch till it fell apart. "Yes! I got it open." the lizard exclaimed and climbed into the narrow opening. "Alright can you follow me?"

"Um, Leon, how are we supposed to fit through that hole?" Panther wanted to know. It was pointless trying. Even for the thin lizard the way through the wall was hardly big enough but neither Panther nor Wolf would fit through it.

"Can you find a way to open those doors from outside?" Wolf wanted to know as Leon dropped himself to the ground on the other side.

"Sure just be patient." the lizard answered and set off. At least he wasn´t locked up anymore. He didn´t exactly know what to do now but being able to do something already did much to change the situation and his mood for the better.

Quietly but fast Leon sneaked through the metal corridors. No sound but his own footsteps was audible which irritated the chameleon a little. He had decided to go to the outside of one of the doors that locked Wolf and Panther up and hoped to find a way to open it but he wasn´t too optimistic about it. Most probably he´d have to find another way.

Without having met a single person he reached the door but was disappointed by the look of it. It was no easier to get it open from outside than from inside. Shit! Then he needed to unlock it from elsewhere. This meant he either needed to find some sort of control-room or someone to ask the way. The problem was just there didn´t seem to be any other being but him.

Rather aimlessly Leon went on. There was nothing that enabled him to tell where to go but after all he had time. He just needed to be patient.

However, he seemed to be the only one who was patient. "Leon." Panther´s voice came through his earpiece. "Did you find a way to unlock those doors?"

"Not yet. I am looking for one." the lizard replied walking on through the ever same metal corridors searching for something or someone useful.

"Good, will you tell us when you found one." the feline wanted to know.

"Only if you quit asking me stupid questions." Leon hissed as Panther´s voice had just distracted him from something else he had thought to have heard. The chameleon listened closely stopping his pace not to be distracted by his own sounds. For a moment there was nothing but then there was the same noise again Panther had first drowned out. It was distant and a few walls were in between but he was quite sure it were angry voices. The lizard stopped for a moment listening more closely. Two people - one high-pitched female voice that was quite superior by the sound of it and one annoyed male voice. Nothing indicated there were any other people but those two. Perfect! There he could ask the way.

Leon hurried up and had no problem to find his destination. "Just fix that up!" he heard the female voice yell and the clacking sound of heeled boots faded away in the distance. "This fucking bitch. I swear one day I´ĺl..." the other voice mumbled. That meant only one person was left in the room. Even better! Carefully Leon peered round the corner. A dark brown otter stood with the back to him still cursing about the woman who had just left.

There were no other sound to be heard so if Leon was really lucky no one other than the otter would even notice. But he didn´t need to be really lucky – only lucky enough to get an answer in time and manage to free his friends.

Leon drew one of the many knives he had with him and soundlessly approached the otter from behind. Noisy as the creature was he couldn´t hear the quiet lizard until Leon stood directly behind him and the otter felt something cold and sharp press against his throat and froze with a startled yelp.

"No wrong move." he heard a low voice hiss into his ear. "Slowly your hand up and kneel down." For a moment the otter just stood there uncomprehending and felt the blade slowly press harder against his throat drawing a few drops of blood. Stunned the trembling creature rose his arms and got to his knees. He bloody well knew who was standing behind him and this was utterly petrifying – infamous Leon Powalski, assassin and feared torturer.

Leon by contrast felt strangely alive pressing his knife against the shaking creature´s throat who was kneeling in front of him. Getting a little excited he was watching the drops of blood role down the otter´s throat and stain his blade wanting to drive it deeper into the fearfully shaking creature. But he had no time for this now. His only priority was to save Wolf and Panther and get out of here. "Tell me, where would I go if I wanted to unlock the doors my team is locked up behind?", he ask cutting a bit more skin open.

"I – I am not allowed to tell you this." the otter´s quivering voice answered that turned into a scream of pain as the blade dug into his shoulder sending a searing pain through his entire arm.

Oh, well, most probably someone had heard this. "So, you´re not? Maybe you should make an exception." Leon suggested but the otter just bent over whimpering in fear.

Slowly the blade slit down through the flesh of his upper arm making him scream desperately and Leon sneer in content feeling a rush of joy in spite of the situation he and his teammates were in. "Please stop it! Two floors above to the left hand and AH! Take that fucking knife out of my arm!" the otter cried screwing his eyes shut a few tears spilling down his face.

A fountain of blood splashed the floor as Leon pulled the knife out of the screaming otter´s arm and pressed it against his throat again. At least that had worked quite fast. "Fine. Get up and show me the way." the lizard demanded pulling the creature to its feet and taking its blaster from it. He needed to hurry before too many people would arrive.

"Now get going!" he demanded harshly. Shakily the otter showed the way but it didn´t take long until other footsteps than those of Leon and him grew audible. Leon concentrated to determine the number of enemies and the direction they were coming from. Three people if he wasn´t mistaken but at least they all came from the same direction.

This wasn´t too good but it could have been worse and after all him asking the way had clearly been loud enough for everyone to hear. "Hurry up and don´t you make a wrong move." he told his captive and got to the end of the corridor before he could tell the enemies were only a few meters away anymore.

"Proceed with caution, guys." he heard a deep voice order the others. "Fucking damn! How did that guy get out of there at all!" another voice wanted to know.

Soundlessly Leon took cover behind the wall getting annoyed about the whimpering otter. "Listen." he hissed into his captive´s ear "You´d better be absolutely quiet now or else you are very lucky if I make do with slitting your fucking throat."

A crow entered the room but realized Leon too late and was shot in the head. The dead body fell to the ground in the doorway splashing the wall with blood. Two enemies left. "Fuck!" another voice yelled. "What do we do now?"

"Take that bastard out." the other voice replied as Leon realized the sound of some more footsteps coming from the opposite direction. Fuck, now he really needed to hurry.

"One wrong move and you´re dead." he reminded the otter and pushed him into the next room using him as a living shield. With his left hand he held the knife to his captive´s throat and in the right one he had his blaster aiming at the bearded vulture and the thorny devil who had already been involved in the first attempt on Star Wolf´s lives. "Don´t even try." he warned the two of them and ask "Which direction?" addressing the otter again.

"The door to the left. There´s a staircase." the quivering creature explained and Leon went towards it as fast as possible without taking any risk of being shot.

He couldn´t spot anyone in the next room and thanks to his chameleon-eyes was able to keep an eye on the bird and the hostile reptile while making sure he wouldn´t run into the line of anyones fire. "Don´t attempt to follow me and you.", he addressed the thorny devil, "Take care of your comrade." With those words he shot at the vultures neck and landed a grazing shot that injured his carotid artery. The bird stumbled backwards and fell against the wall while the thorny devil looked at him in shock. "You need to stop the bleeding." Leon explained to the horrified lizard who took another moment to react and bend down beside his wounded comrade. That should keep him busy for a while.

Leon hurried up the stairs the otter telling him through which door to exit the staircase and which of the many following doors in the next corridor was the right one. "As there´s nothing else to do right now, you could quite as well tell me who hired you or who your boss is." Leon inquired running through another long corridor.

"I am not allowed to give you any piece of information." the otter replied.

"I remember we had this discussion before. And do you remember how it ended?" Leon menaced moving the blade from the otters neck to his other shoulder.

"Please, I can´t!" the creature desperately pleaded.

"You can´t? Well, maybe you should try a bit harder then." the lizard replied and was just about to stab his knife into the otters shoulder as two doors in front of him burst open and three hit men opened fire on him.

Taking cover behind his captive Leon shot at a skinny vampire but missed and headed towards another door. He entered the room and took cover behind a wall. "Is there another way that´s not much longer?" he ask the otter who nodded. "And where?"

"Exit through the other door and turn to the left." As fast as possible Leon headed towards said door and hurried to the end of the corridor. "The door to your right." the otter explained.

When he opened the door a laser beam hit the wall missing Leon by a hair´s breadth and the lizard quickly took cover again. Placing the otter in front of him he carefully moved closer again to peer into the room. As far as he could tell there was only one person in it – a slender rat about the size and shape of the hit man that had stood on the roof in the first attempt on his life. Yet Leon needed to be careful but he also knew that it was only a matter of time till other enemies would come from behind.

With his living shield he moved into the next room aiming at the rat who didn´t lower his blaster. "Drop your gun or..." Leon said but was interrupted by a laser beam that almost hit him. He pulled his shield to the other side of the room and returned fire as something hit it not by accident and the otter fell to the ground bleeding heavily from his chest.

Leon instantly took cover behind a desk and shot at the rat but didn´t hit his target. The sound of a few more shots was audible and a gurgling noise from the otter who was obviously trying to say something. "What?" Leon ask and crawled a bit closer to hear better.

"R-Riley, O´Maley." the otter mouthed.

"The name of your boss?" Leon inquired and the otter nodded weakly.

"The rat?" Leon wanted to know and again the otter tried to nod his eyes falling shut as another shot hit his body. Should there be any opportunity Leon decided he´d take his time killing this Riley simply because he was such a Pigma. There were a few things he didn´t like at all among them stupidity, cocky blue birds and traitors.

xxx

"Why do you think Leon takes so long?" Panther ask worried after he had gotten tired of idly staring at the wall.

"Because that´s a big space station." Wolf explained trying not to doubt his friend´s skills.

"Yes, but if he doesn´t make it?"

"Then we´re fucked. What do you want to hear? I´m not a fucking fortune teller!" Wolf growled at the impatient feline but he really didn´t have the nerves for this right now. He hated the situation enough himself and didn´t need any worried whining cat.

"No. I guess time just seems much longer if you sit around and can´t do anything but wait." Panther considered trying to calm himself down.

"Look, Panther. Leon will make it. He knows what he´s doing."

"Yes, but I´d still prefer him to hurry a little... Why do you think they are so eager on killing us?"

"I fucking don´t know. We might just have pissed them off somehow during any of our missions. There´s a fucking lot of people who want to see us dead." But this was indeed an important question as this someone was rather persistent and didn´t seem to want to give up before he was dead.

"Yes, but there are less who put THAT much effort into putting this wish into practice." Panther replied.

"Still I can´t think of anything in particular we´ve done lately to annoy anyone capable of putting this shit up." Wolf growled giving it a second thought but with no other results.

"And anything we´ve done but not lately?"

"Still there would need to be a reason why now and not earlier and still I don´t have a fucking idea who it could be. We pissed a lot of people off and we pissed Corneria off a couple of times but those were no Cornerian soldiers, mercenaries or whatever." Wolf explained.

"Then that´s another thing we´ll need to find out, right?"

"Yes, but not now. Now we need to get out of here."

"The problem is... hey, did you hear that?!" Panther wanted to know his ears perking up.

"The door is opening! Leon made it!" Wolf exclaimed hastily getting up from his sitting position.

"Yeah, no matter how creepy he is, sometimes he really is good for something." the feline cheered hastily jumping to his feet.

"Let´s get going." As he was exiting the door Wolf contacted Leon "We´re heading for the Wolfen. We´ll meet you there."

"Understood. Am on my way." the lizard replied.

"Do you remember the way we came?" Panther worried.

"´Course I do. How stupid do you think I am?!" Wolf growled halfway running halfway limping as he was leading the way.

Panther decided not to mention he hadn´t the faintest idea where they had come from. For him it simply had been too many corridors, rooms and doors they went through and passed. Instead he just followed Wolf who didn´t lose his bearings in spite of the amount of possible ways and directions.

After running through empty metal corridors for a while Panther wondered: "Isn´t there a single person in the whole station?"

"Let´s be glad there isn´t and go on."

"Well, I am glad there isn´t but it´s still odd and a little creepy."

"Whatever. Just don´t drop your guards."

"I didn´t... Woah! What was that?!" Panther exclaimed jumping through the next open door as a laser beam closely missed him and hit the wall.

"See here are the people you missed! Happy?" Wolf replied taking cover himself and returning fire.

"Well not exactly."

"Be careful what you wish for. You might get it after all." another voice noted as a figure turned up next to Panther.

"Leon! How did you find us?!"

"You were loud enough for the whole space station to hear."

"Stop chatting and fucking help me! That goes for the both of you!" Wolf yelled at them bringing their attention back to the laser fire and the enemies. Laser beams closely missed Wolf as he tried to score a hit. Fuck! When he had jumped through the door to take cover the injury on his leg had started to bleed again and he needed to try hard not to let the returned pain distract him.

Also Panther and Leon didn´t have much success trying to shoot the enemy. Every time they peered out from behind the wall to be able to aim some shots hit it close to them forcing them to retreat behind the wall. "How the fuck are we supposed to shoot them?" Panther wanted to know starting to get more nervous due to the futility of the fight.

"Do you get along on your own?" Leon ask.

"Why? What are you up to?"

"Just looking for a better position." the lizard explained walking over to the other door of the room.

"Fine but hurry!" Panther called after the reptile who was already gone. After taking a deep breath the feline tried again but with no more success than the previous times. "This fucking doesn´t work!" He definitely preferred dogfights to any kind of ground combat.

Wolf shot at the enemies without even trying to aim properly as he would have been at a far too high risk of being shot himself yet someone cried out in pain and he could hear a body fall to the floor and someone whimper and try to take cover again. "Fuck, Leila!" another voice cursed. Still there were at least four hit men left.

Only a moment later another one cried out in pain and fell against the wall. "Panther? You got one?" Wolf wanted to know.

"No! Leon?" the feline replied.

Wolf risked peering out from behind the wall and was astonished as no laser beams hit it. Obviously the hit men were distracted by someone attacking them from behind. He took the chance and his shot hit the shoulder of one of the enemies.

"Fuck that!" he heard another one yell who was trying to shoot him and took cover again but now there were only two hit men left who were fully able to fight.

Also Panther realized the situation had changed and dared to try get into a better position to shoot the remaining hit men. A pangolin rather carelessly stumbled backwards and went into his line of fire. With an astonished yelp the mammal broke down as a shot hit it. "Yes! Got one!"

Only a moment later another scream was heard and the three mercenaries carefully came out of their hiding places. "Let´s get out of here." Wolf said walking on clenching his teeth feeling the pain it caused him.

"Just a moment." Leon interrupted him.

"What?" Panther ask in astonishment turning round to see what the lizard was up to.

Leon approached the wounded pangolin that was trying to creep away. As the mammal reached for the blaster it had lost during the fight he kicked the weapon out of its reach and drew one of his many knives. "Who hired you?" he wanted to know when more footsteps grew audible.

"Um, Leon, I don´t think there´s any time for this." Panther noted hastily walking towards the exit.

"Answer me!" the lizard demanded stabbing the knife into the pangolin´s shoulder making it scream and struggle in a futile attempt to draw back

"Ugh, Leon can we go now? They´re coming closer!" Panther nauseatedly noted taking a few more steps back.

"Who...?"

"I don´t know, please! NO! AH!" the pangolin yelled while the footsteps grew louder.

"Leon! Now!" Wolf demanded and turned round running off closely followed by Panther.

"Fuck this!" the lizard cursed getting up and headed for the exit as well. Why did he never have enough time lately?!

Only one moment before their pursuers would have had a free field of fire the mercenaries reached their Wolfen and hastily took off. "We´re alive!" Panther cheered with much relief just as laser canons opened fire on them. "Woah! What the fuck?!"

"Shit! I´m hit!" Leon exclaimed as his fighter was shook violently by the impact of one of the laser beams.

"Let´s fucking get out of here." Wolf demanded speeding his Wolfen up. The other two pilots followed close behind and the Wolfen zoomed into space and out of reach.

"Alright. Whoever is so eager on killing us is getting a real nuisance." Wolf noted after they had been flying in silence for a few moments.

"The leader of those hit men is some rat named Riley O´Maly, however no one mentioned who hired him." Leon explained.

"No one?! How many people did you ask?!" Panther exclaimed.

"Anything else of any importance?" Wolf wanted to know.

"No, nothing. There´s been a permanent lack of time."

xxx

"But then we still have the same problem." Panther complained while the three members of Star Wolf landed their Wolfen. "Someone is trying to kill us and we have no fucking idea when they´ll try next or how nor would we actually have any idea who it is."

"That´s true. We need to find out more about it but that´s a risky thing as long as it is them who find us and not us who find and attack them but it´s difficult to turn the table as long as we know that little." Wolf agreed.

"So what do we do next?"

"We have the name of their leader. Maybe this will help us."

"What we really need to do is find out who hired them. We could of course simply kill all those hit men but there´s an awful lot of other hit men one could hire." Leon joined in the conversation after having been quiet for a while.

"You´re right but all we have got is one name and it´s unlikely that it will help us find their employers without dealing with those hit men first." Wolf noted.

"It won´t unless they´re completely stupid."

"They didn´t seem to be, did they?... And that´s really all we have?" Panther ask being in not exactly the best mood after all that had happened and gone wrong today.

"We might or might not have a vague idea of their number but that´s worth even far less than the name of this Riley." Leon considered.

"How would we have their number? Did you ask?" Panther inquired.

"No, but the first time they tried to kill us we were attacked by six or seven of them, depends on if you count the jackal, and killed one. Those were obviously not all. The second time there were more and maybe all Riley´s men were in the space station or at least a more or less random selection of them. If this is the case the percentage of people we met both times could give evidence on how many hit men we are dealing with provided that they don´t get reinforcements they didn´t have the previous time and can´t replace killed allies within a matter of a few days. But this stays very vague and might not even tell us anything not to mention that it mightn´t tell us anything important."

"Alright, do you mind me leave now? I need to get changed." Panther ask looking at his blood soaked arm. He didn´t like the look of his own blood, he didn´t like the smell of it and somehow it always looked far more than it really was if it was coming out of his body.

"Sure. There´s little we can do today anyway. Tomorrow we´ll see what we can find out about that Riley." Wolf replied and Panther walked off though obviously not in a hurry. "But this only tells us that they´re about how many? Twenty? Twenty-five?" he continued talking addressing Leon.

"Yes, I assume that´s about their number minus those we killed but most were only injured and they could get reinforcements."

"Damn. I mean, I was getting bored too because nothing ever happened in the past I don´t know for how long but this fucking isn´t what I had been hoping for." Wolf cursed knocking a chair over.

"The most annoying thing really is that there´s no way to predict what they´re gonna try next without any further knowledge. Both times they certainly were prepared and had planned their assault in detail but they weren´t prepared perfectly. The first time they could easily have killed you if we hadn´t been knocked over or if we didn´t realize in time. However, they didn´t have any proper plan in case this attempt failed which it did and they didn´t have any proper plan to kill Panther and me. The second plan had required even more preparation but again they haven´t been careful enough. They didn´t make sure we couldn´t escape and they had nothing to really kill us if their guns failed."

"So they´re not bad but far less good than they think they´re. They don´t think far enough and overestimate themselves or underestimate us which is about the same." Wolf concluded.

"This Riley surely has some experience and he´s not bad in combat. In some ways I wouldn´t even call him stupid but there are things he understands nothing of and he´s a coward." Leon explained feeling the immediate desire to rip the rat apart.

"You said he run off, didn´t you, when he thought he might not win."

"Yes, first shot my shield down that was one of his men. Thus my shield didn´t like him and told me his name. Then he tried to kill me and as he realized I was better than he thought he decided to run." Leon summed their fight up.

"Something like a Pigma just in less fat, less stinking and less ugly?"

"Yeah, that was about the first thing I associated with him too." Leon replied just as Panther returned without having gotten changed wearing a slightly flustered expression. "You forgot to get changed."

"I know. There has been something odd in the news that might be of some importance."

"The news? Why did you watch the news now?" Wolf ask a little confused.

"Since when do you watch the news? They´re not pornographic." Leon wondered.

"May I tell you now? … General Pepper has been killed in an assassination attempt and..." Panther interrupted him slightly annoyed.

"Fine. Do they replace him with someone who is as much of an idiot as he was?" Wolf wanted to know. He didn´t know too much about the dog but after all he knew the dog´s death was no loss.

"That´s not the point. There have been multiple attempts on high-ranking Cornerian army officers and other important people including Star Fox."

"Well, that indeed is interesting. I just wonder..."

"What became of Star Fox?" Leon interrupted Wolf´s considerations but in fact it was the first question that had come to Wolf´s mind too.

"Slippy Toad got injured but nothing lethal."

"And some bird?"

"Sorry Leon, however much you would like to see him dead he stayed unharmed."

"No, not dead. For example paralyzed from the neck down... blind and..."

"Paralyzed, blind and... isn´t that enough?" Panther interrupted Leon´s fantasies.

"Well, maybe... do you know what would be so great about him getting paralyzed, blind and perhaps a few more things I´d really like to happen to him?"

"Not exactly – apart from because there´s something seriously wrong with you – and I don´t really want to know."

"I´ll tell you anyway." Leon ignored Panther´s answer.

"Why doesn´t this surprise me. Why do you even ask if you don´t care about the answer?"

"Do you know what a rhetorical question is? Anyway, it would be great because, though not nearly as good, it´s a bit similar to tying him up and..."

"Alright, in both cases he couldn´t move and both isn´t a nice fate but those are not the only awful things that can happen to a person, so what?!" Panther was getting impatient. There were more important and less sick things to discuss than what Leon would want to happen to his enemy.

"Just imagine the following: Being paralyzed means you´re completely helpless. There´s nothing you could do to change your situation. You couldn´t even kill yourself because, well, you can´t move and you know that´s how it is gonna be for the rest of your life which seems to be all eternity. Basically there are only few things left you could do to pass the time and this is a boring matter but maybe you could learn to cope in a year or two. However, if you are additionally blind and possibly deaf this leaves you with absolutely nothing to do or perceive. There´s just a head left of you lying in a completely empty, silent, black void alone with its thoughts and you can´t switch them off. So you think but as there are no new perceptions there are no new thoughts and then you think the same desperate thoughts again and again and again and nothing ever gets better. How long do you think will it take to drive you completely crazy and you can´t even tell how much time passed or if any time passed at all. So you crave nothing but to put an end to all of it and the thoughts in your head never change and for many, many years the same things come to your mind again and again, a thousand times every single day you can´t count as there´s no sunrise to tell you a new day started and..."

"What the?! Why would anyone want to imagine such a thing?! I´m just glad I have no idea what´s going on in your mind." Panther exclaimed.

"Fine. Could we get back to the actual topic then." Wolf ask. Sometimes such interruptions really got on his nerves. And, thinking of it, other than Leon he wouldn´t have been glad about anything having happened to his personal enemy out of various reasons. To Wolf it wasn´t so much about doing as much harm as possible. He wanted to kill Fox, or at least he had wanted to do so, but he had always wanted to do so himself, to get his personal revenge, and never simply had hoped for the most horrible things to happen to him. Furthermore he had gotten less and less determined to fully destroy Fox and sometimes when his mind was blurred thought he wouldn´t even want this but the fights he was craving to win at last rather were only about winning than about killing.

Leon hate towards Falco by contrast had stayed undiminished throughout all those years and of course he also was craving victory but even more than that he was craving for the bird to suffer unbearable pain even beyond the sickest imagination or fantasy. Yes, the thing he wanted most was to inflict such pain on him but it was also a delight if it simply happened. Though, on second thought, he´d rather have something happen to Falco that didn´t restrict what could still be done to him.

"Yes, the actual... I´ve basically already said everything. There were multiple assassination attempts and they seem to be related to each other." Panther summed up what they knew.

"I just wonder if the attempt on our lives was related to those too. If not it would be a strange coincidence but why would anyone who has an interest in taking those Cornerian army officers and Star Fox out want to kill us as well?"

"If those things are related the whole thing is bigger and maybe more dangerous than any of us expected. I could only imagine them being preparing to start a new war." Leon considered.

"That´s what came to my mind too, but we only more or less flew for Corneria during the Apparoid Invasion. They need to be quite sure we won´t work for them or they need to think they couldn´t use us." Wolf noted.

"So let´s say that´s the case, why would they be sure we´d be against them?" Panther ask.

"Only if they do something we can´t possible accept like in the Apparoid Invasion. Every being in the Lylat System would have ended up dead or controlled including us." Wolf concluded.

"Yet those attempts were carried out by people, so those are either dim people or it is something that wouldn´t kill everyone." Leon mentioned.

"I know, but that´s all we have. It might just be coincidence though."

Please Review!

Any review is appreciated. I know this story has many flaws and if you think it consists of flaws only you can tell me too. After all awareness of ones own weaknesses and mistakes is the first step to improve.


	4. A strange note

Thank you a lot BladeOfThunder1for reviewing! It´s really motivating to know that at least someone reads and likes my story.

**Shreds of lives**

**A strange note**

Panther was sitting on the sofa doing nothing in particular and starting to get bored. He didn´t like to spend all day inside their base but even less than that he liked to be shot down. Therefore he felt rather indecisive about what to do.

"Anything the matter? You look like someone sitting on an anthill." Wolf ask as he saw the impatient cat.

"No, I´m just bored but I don´t know if going anywhere is a risky thing."

"Well, that´s something you´ll have to make up your mind about by yourself."

"I know, it´s just... no, I think I´ll go. They can´t know when or where I´m going." the feline decided and got up walking out of the room while Leon entered.

"You got up late today, even later than Panther." Wolf noted.

"No, I didn´t. I was in the target-practice room throwing a few knives. I like my new targets or actually I like throwing knives at them."

"Hell, you´re absolutely obsessed with that. Only because they´re bird-shaped doesn´t make them be better targets."

"And blue. They´re also blue." Leon reasoned making Wolf roll his eye.

"That, of course, makes them be double as good as normal targets." he remarked sarcastically.

"Double as good as normal targets because they´re bird-shaped and another time double as good because they´re blue. See, all in all they´re quite good."

"Right, but I, for example, don´t need fox-shaped targets, do I?"

"No, probably not. By the way, what about Riley. Have you found out anything about him? After all I want to have a living target once in a while. Well, once in a short while." Leon ask with a sneer imagining the things he´d do once they´d have the rat.

"Nothing so far, but I´ll see if I can find anything."

"You need some help?" Leon wanted to know. After all he had nothing proper to do and just throwing knives at targets got boring after a while even though the targets were bird-shaped and blue.

"No, only if you want to. Otherwise I can do this by myself." Wolf replied.

"Sure. I don´t actually got anything else to do. Well, there are a few things I could pass the time with, but still. Panther isn´t gonna help, right?"

"No, he´s gonna screw someone."

"Well, I guess he´d not be a great help anyway. So, what do we start with?" Leon wanted to know.

xxx

Silja had wrapped her jacket tightly around her body. She was standing lonely at a corner unnoticed and almost unseen by the many people passing by and going after their daily routines. For almost an hour she had been here now the cold Fichinian wind making her shiver as she kept her eyes fixed on a certain window of a certain building.

Even though all she could see was a wall and a window this sight unleashed an ominous suffocating fear, that was much colder than the Fichinian air around her, inside her trembling heart. She just wondered if he knew she was alive. They had seen her, but had they also recognized her? Either way it was too late for turning back. She had made her choice and could no longer turn and run. However much it scared her it was time she forced herself to go on and she was more determined than ever that this time she would not lose. She knew all too well what was at stakes and that there was no point where you didn´t have anything to lose anymore but the point after your death and yet she wouldn´t run from her nightmares anymore but face them... at least she was determined to do so.

All Silja wanted to do was live again and therefore she needed someone to die because hate could eat your soul and burn your heart and because she´d never be free as long as Riley was alive. For so long she had thought of him in fear and horror and helpless futile hatred but now she meant to have found someone who could help her rid herself of the horrors of her haunted dreams.

Still she found it almost impossible to simply approach the building he was in and with every step she had taken towards it she had thought her legs would give away. Now she was standing here trying to battle her fear as she suddenly saw someone exit the building. It was not Riley himself but someone she recognized, one of his people. Carefully she followed that person keeping a safe distance. After all she needed to know what they were up to if she wanted to bring about Riley´s end.

The person she was following went round a corner and the jackal-girl followed soundlessly peering round it. She waited for the other one to go on before she carefully took the next step lowering her eyes after a moment. She was following too obviously. She knew she needed to stay unnoticed and yet it sometimes seemed to her she kept making the same mistakes over and over again.

When she had seen Riley the first time since a fateful day more than three years ago she had made the same mistake and a few more and yet by sheer luck she had stayed unseen. He had just been a shape in the distance walking round a corner and yet she had known it was him. It had almost made her heart stop to beat and once of a sudden she hadn´t been able to remember how to breathe. In a strange trance-like state she had been watching him disappear till she had felt something hot splash her legs that was her coffee she had dropped. She could only remember one time she had been more scared than then – this had been their first encounter – but even so an inner voice had told her to follow because that day she had made a choice that could give her a chance to win a new life or end what was left of hers.

That day many things had gone on in her mind. Many memories had brought tears to her eyes, had made her shake all over and had made her want to run and feel she couldn´t. But it had also sparked a strange and new determination inside her broken trembling heart. She had felt something she thought to have lost long ago – it simply had been the awareness that it still was in her hands to determine her fate; that she wasn´t as helpless as she felt. Maybe you couldn´t choose to win or to lose but you could choose to fight or to give up. This was what she had learned that day.

And now the past few weeks she had been trying to find out as much as possible about Riley´s businesses and plans on Fichina. She had seen him set up an ambush and as she had realized whom he was trying to kill and as the ambush had failed it had given her a strange feeling of hope she had thought to have lost long ago because after all who killed and who was killed could be the other way round in the end. She just needed to make sure it really would be. Sometimes she still felt so powerless but she knew she no longer was.

Silja kept following till she recognized someone. For a short moment she just stood there in shock but then she remembered that the things that would happen partly were in her hands too and hurried closer. There was Panther Caruso sitting in a café chatting with two girls who might have been even a bit younger than Silja herself and he was completely unaware of the danger he was in.

For a moment she was absolutely sure the hit man had known he would be here and would try to shoot him but by her startled expression she could tell this was wrong – simply coincidence? If this was the case the situation could even help her. Maybe it was time to turn the table.

xxx

Wolf and Leon had finished with their investigations a while ago and the results hadn´t exactly been breathtaking. There wasn´t a lot to be found about this Riley O´Maly and nothing of it told them who his employer might be. Of course – and this was Leon´s preferred method anyway – they could simply try to find Riley and ask him directly.

Now after having been working and searching for information for a too long time they both were in the target-practice room perfecting their skills or simply fooling around and passing the time.

A laser beam hit the target´s forehead at the same time as a knife was meant to hit its heart but went a bit off. Shit! How did that happen? All the other knives Leon had thrown today had hit exactly where he had wanted to but this time it clearly was off.

"Aw, Leon you failure." Wolf mocked him non too seriously. After all he had already missed once today himself.

"Why what´s wrong with mine?"

"Just look, mine is deadly and yours is just, well, see what yours is."

"Yup, but mine hit more nerves. That´s what I aimed to do anyway." Leon reasoned.

"More nerves? It´s a target. It doesn´t have any fucking nerves. Just admit that you failed dismally."

"Yes, it´s a target. It also can´t die."

"If it was a person it´d be dead now." Wolf put clear.

"If it was a person it´d also have nerves, so what?" Leon argued.

"If it was a person my shot would still have hit the same time your knife hit and it´d be dead now and thus not feel any pain."

"Yes, and if it was a person it would be enough to kill it once. Therefore I may throw my knife wherever I want to. You can´t kill one and the same person twice."

"And if I missed too? Then it wouldn´t be dead." Wolf pointed out.

"If you missed too you´d be a failure but the `too´ actually is wrong as I didn´t miss. Apart from that have you ever seen anyone be very good at fighting who had a knife stabbed through his chest?"

"Still practicing to hit a target deadly is more useful than trying to hit some fucking nerves and there are places where there are more nerves than where you hit it."

"Since when do you know where a lot of nerves are and where not? I think I know that a bit better than you." Leon explained though he really had just missed the target´s heart and not hit any particular nerves.

"Alright. I´m not sickly obsessed with hurting everyone as much as possible. But I still have nerves and therefore know where there are a lot of nerves and where not and where you hit it are not more nerves than anywhere else." Wolf reasoned as a knife hit the target where its manhood would be.

"See, was that enough nerves now?"

"Fancy, I didn´t say it should hit as many nerves as possible." Wolf rolled his eye looking at his friend´s knife.

"But at least there you should know are some nerves. Not long ago you found out. Say, do you have any bruises?" Leon inquired referring to the jackal-girl who had hit her knee in between his legs.

"Why would that be any of your businesses? Just fuck you Leon." Wolf replied slightly annoyed.

"Why would I do so?"

"Why would you do what?"

"Why would I fuck me and apart from that how am I supposed to do so?" Leon ask.

"Hey, this wasn´t meant literally and I don´t care how you fuck yourself. Just don´t do it here. Go to your room to the bathroom or elsewhere."

"Alright and why would I do so now?"

"You shall not do so now. I mean, if you want to then go, but otherwise don´t try to get things wrong that are not possible to get wrong." Wolf explained getting a little impatient with Leon. "Could we change to a more normal topic now?"

"If you want a more normal topic you´ll first need to find a more normal person to talk to." Leon pointed out in a factual manner.

"Yes, that´s the problem, isn´t it?"

"C´mon for how long do you know me now? Shouldn´t you be used to me by now? Apart from that the last thing we were talking about wasn´t even typical." Leon noted.

"Yeah, right. But that it wasn´t typical doesn´t make it less weird."

"But less sick."

At that moment Panther entered the room who had been looking for the both of them since he had returned. "So that´s where you are." he noted and looked around. "Why does that target have a knife as a penis?"

"The knife isn´t its penis. The knife is just stabbed through its penis." Wolf explained.

"Alright and why is there a knife stabbed through its penis?"

"Ask Leon."

"Leon, why do you maltreat targets now?" Panther wanted to know a little confused.

"They are _targets_! Everyone maltreats them." The lizard explained.

"No, I just killed them. You maltreat them." Wolf contradicted him.

"Fine, actually I don´t care about the target and its penis. You know whom I´ve met?" Panther interrupted them.

"No, how should we know? We weren´t there. You´ve gotten on the nerves of many girls, I assume.", Wolf replied.

"I didn´t get on their nerves. Do you remember that hot tiger-chick in the bar a few days ago? She didn´t brush me off. She didn´t actually back then and she definitely didn´t now." the cat explained meaningfully.

"So you had sex with her?"

"She´s absolutely great, I tell ya. And I think I´ll see her again." the feline explained smiling happily at the memories that came to his mind thinking of her.

"One and the same girl twice? She must have been really good."

"C´mon it´s not like I´ve never had one girl more than one time. But, yes, she´s really good in bed."

"So when do you intend to meet her again?" Wolf wanted to know.

"I dunno, but I got her number. Her name is Lorah." Panther fumbled for something in his pocket and finally found a sheet of paper while another fell to the ground.

"Seems he got two girlfriends. Now that´s a bit more the way we know him." Leon remarked picking up the paper Panther had lost.

"No that´s not... Leon, what is it actually? I thought I only had one sheet of paper in my pocket." Panther wanted to know.

"Looks like... an address. Do you got her address in case you don´t remember how to use a phone? Her handwriting isn´t very easily legible though."

"No she didn´t give me her address, just her number. What is that piece of paper? Leon, give that back." the feline demanded making the lizard take a step back and hold the piece of paper away from him.

"Then you must have got the address of someone else and you just forgot about it."

"No, but maybe she wants me to come there. Is there a date written on it?"

"No, just an address." Leon replied.

"Alright, would you give that back then or at least show it to me?" Panther wanted to know and tried to grab Leon by the arm who quickly jumped out of his reach. "Now, that´s just childish! Leon, that´s my fucking piece of paper!"

"And you are sure no one gave that to you and you didn´t have it in your pocket when you left?" Wolf wanted to know.

"Did you wear the same things yesterday?" Leon ask.

"No I didn´t wear the same things yesterday. Why is that important? And yes, I think I didn´t have that before and no one gave it to me."

"Well, this sheet of paper doesn´t look like it had been in the washing machine. Then you must have got it today or you didn´t wash your clothing." Leon concluded. "But the we would smell the later reason."

"Panther, think again. Are you absolutely sure you don´t know where this sheet comes from?" Wolf wanted to know. Usually no one would have cared about a sheet of paper but so many strange and alarming things had been happening lately that Wolf begun to wonder if there was any connection.

"Yes, well, I´ve never seen that sheet. He doesn´t give it back, however, so I can´t have a look."

"Leon, would you show that sheet to us?" Wolf ask impatiently.

"You think this is important? And the one who gave it to him has something to do with the attempts on our lives or knows something about it?" Leon wanted to know.

"I don´t know if it is important but we should at least consider it. After all we don´t know a lot and if this indeed is related to the attempt on our lives we need to find out who has written it and why."

"Alright, Panther would you show us the number of that tiger? Just to make sure it isn´t written by the same person." Leon ask finally showing the piece of paper to the others. Indeed the handwriting of whoever had written this wasn´t exactly beautiful.

Panther held his sheet of paper next to it. "Well, that certainly is not the same person." Leon concluded but both of the others could have told that much too. Lorah´s handwriting was fine and very feminine whereas the letters on the otter piece of paper had been written in a hasty careless way.

"But who could have written it?" Panther wanted to know.

"Someone who had been in a hurry. Part of it is hardly legible. I don´t think anyone would write such a note who planned to do so in the beforehand, had plenty of time to prepare and knew where to find the person he wanted to give it to." Leon considered.

"So it wasn´t planned. Does that tell us anything about the person who did it?" Wolf ask trying to find an answer to his own question.

"It means the note wasn´t given to Panther on direct order of Riley. If they planned to lure us somewhere they´d have planned ahead. The person who did this did it spontaneously. It could still be a trap but then some of Riley´s men decided spontaneously to do so or they didn´t expect Panther to be there and had planned to do it later on. Yet I don´t know why any of Riley´s men would do so. It could quite as well have been someone else and then we need to find out who and why this someone wants us to go there." Leon answered.

"Someone who dislikes this Riley or his employers for example?" Panther wanted to know.

"Yes, it either must be a trap or someone is passing information to us or it just doesn´t have anything to do with the attempts on our lives." Wolf replied. It would be an odd way to ambush them and it really seemed a little too spontaneous but who could want to pass information to them? He was trying to figure out what was more likely but he couldn´t tell. "Alright, this is at least something but we need to be absolutely careful."

"Then we´ll go there tomorrow?" Panther ask.

"Yes, we will and this time we´re gonna get that scumbag, Riley." Wolf replied.

"I´d still like to know who this was." Panther noted.

"There´s not much we could tell from this note other than that the person who wrote it did so spontaneously and hastily. From that handwriting you can´t even take a guess if the writer is male or female nor could you tell anything else." Leon answered taking a closer look at the sheet of paper but it was pointless trying to find out anything he hadn´t noticed so far. It was all very strange though. He just hoped this really was a tip on where to find Riley and they wouldn´t waste their time because of a silly joke.

"Well, it´s better than nothing." Wolf broke the silence between them.

"By the way, did you find out anything about Riley?" Panther inquired.

"Nothing that would help us. A little early background stuff and a few crimes he has committed but nothing that would help us." Wolf replied.

"So I did more by doing nothing than you by working all day?" Panther wanted to know. Somehow he liked that thought. He even was a little proud of it although the paper really hadn´t showed up thanks to him.

"Every dog has its day." Wolf answered.

"Hey, I´m not a dog. Are you blind? If anyone here is a dog then its you!" the feline complained.

"Alright, every cat has its day, happy?"

"Yes, but because of Lorah. I´m very happy right now."

"You´re not truly falling for her, are you?" Leon ask. The one time he had seen her was enough for him to be absolutely sure she was no good but it didn´t matter after all he also was quite sure Panther´s affair with her wouldn´t last too long.

"She´s wonderful, absolutely perfect, gorgeous, breathtakingly beautiful and..."

"Yuck! I think I´m getting sick."

"You are already sick, Leon." Wolf joined their conversation.

"The word got more than one meaning and I mean I think I´m going to vomit."

"Then go to the toilet." Wolf suggested.

"I´d rather gag him."

"What´s the matter? Why can´t I like her? She´s great." Panther argued.

This chapter went a bit too short, mainly because there was hardly any action but the next one should be longer.


	5. An ally and a captive

**Shreds of lives**

**An ally and a captive**

Wolf parked the car not far from the building their anonymous informer or enemy had told them to come to. Again they would fight Riley and his men but this time they would hopefully be at an advantage – provided that it was an informer who had slipped them the note.

"Be absolutely careful when you get out of the car. They had tried to take us out by snipers before and we still don´t know if this is an ambush." Wolf warned his team. He didn´t like the situation but most probably they´d not get any better chance.

Leon meanwhile was looking out of the window scanning every roof for suspicious figures standing on it and checking on every window in his view trying to spot possible snipers standing behind them but they simply were too many to make sure there was no immediate danger.

"Can you see anything suspicious?" Wolf wanted to know doing the same as Leon.

The lizard stayed silent for a while letting his gaze wander before he shook his head. "i can´t see a thing, but that doesn´t mean that there isn´t anything."

Up and on people passed by but none of them payed any attention to Star Wolf and occasionally someone walked close enough by a window that they could see a shadow move behind it but nothing indicated anyone had even noticed them. After he had been staring out of the window of the car for another short while Wolf sighed. Waiting wouldn´t help them either. With more determination he spoke up: "Alright, let´s do this. You know the plan."

There really wasn´t too much of a plan as there also wasn´t a lot they knew. It simply was be careful, go to the right flat, kill or better capture Riley and leave alive. Leon and Panther nodded getting out of the car after Wolf. No laser beams hit any of them, no one even reacted to them. "Hey, we´re still alive." Panther noted with a hint of a smile.

"Yes, don´t drop your guards or this might change." Wolf remarked in a more factual manner walking on still keeping a lookout for anything dangerous or strange but not too obviously as he wanted to avoid to attract anyones attention.

Together they entered the right block of flats in a much more casual-manner than their business really was. As they wanted to avoid unnecessary attention they didn´t wear any armor visibly and their clothing didn´t give away their intentions either. If they had known what to expect they could have prepared better for the given situation but as it was impossible to tell they could only be careful and act based on assumptions. This could be some sort of hideout and they would be able to catch Riley unaware, it could be a trap, it could just be a place to get further information or it could be nothing at all.

They were walking up the staircase trying to mentally prepare for every possible case as they suddenly realized a rather short female owl coming towards them and freeze as she saw them. There was no doubt she was the one who had led them into the trap in the space station and by her expression they could tell that she hadn´t expected to see them here. With a feeling of contentment Wolf inferred that this place really was a hideout of some kind and that Riley most probably wasn´t prepared for being attacked.

All three members of Star Wolf aimed their blasters at her before she was even able to recover from her shock and react. "No wrong move or sound, girl. Hands up and come here." Wolf demanded.

Staring at them out of her huge widened eyes the frightened girl obeyed and tentatively took the first step towards them. "Now, hurry. We don´t have all day." Wolf ordered in a harsh tone and she almost stumbled and fell down the stairs as she hastily tried to do so.

However, she had only walked half the way as a voice from two floors above called her: "Leila!" and she stopped looking up.

Wolf kept aiming at the girl while Leon and Panther tried to see what was going on above them just early enough to see an object being hurled towards them. "Grenades! Take cover!" Leon warned Wolf and jumped out of the way rolling down a few stairs.

Wolf and Panther only took a short moment longer to react and followed Leon´s example getting out of the way just before the grenade hit the ground and exploded. "Ow!" Panther moaned trying to get back on his feet and pressing one hand onto the back of his head.

"Did you get hit?" Wolf ask the whining feline.

"No, those stairs are fucking hard and edgy." Panther complained his eyes still screwed up.

"Let´s go on!"

The three members of Star Wolf got back to their feet and run up the stairs again just early enough to see the owl dash off and run out of their view.

"Hurry, before they got time to prepare." Wolf said running after her closely followed by Panther and Leon. All of them were fully aware of the importance of attacking Riley of guard as they were sprinting up the stairs till they spotted a figure standing on the story above them who had been waiting for the fleeing owl and aimed his blaster at Wolf.

They reacted just in time to jump out of the way as a laser beam hit the ground where Wolf had just been standing. The owl-girl ran past the skinny vampire who tried to shoot them once more and was about to warn Riley and all the others.

They couldn´t afford to lose any more time because then they´d also lose what little advantage they still were in. The three of them returned fire forcing the vampire to take cover and moved on as he was not able to aim at them without being shot down. This stair case wasn´t Wolf´s preferred place to carry out an armed fight especially if he still needed to go up the stairs.

They run towards the place where the vampire had been standing always ready to shoot at anyone who came into their view or to jump out of the way but their enemy seemed to have already retreated the time they reached the right floor.

As they approached the now closed door of the right flat a babble of voices and a mass of other rushed sounds grew audible. Wolf smashed the door and quickly took cover behind the wall as several laser beams flew past him.

Leon was standing on the other side of the now broken door and Panther was standing closely behind him. Both Wolf and Leon fired round the corner without looking where the laser beams would hit as too many people were behind the wall. "That won´t work, will it?" Panther worried. They were unable to move on and had certainly made too much noise not to be disturbed by police.

"Panther, would you take Leon´s place? Leon, you know what to do?" Wolf ordered starting to get stressed and Panther and Leon quickly changed position.

Panther and Wolf tried to keep the hit men busy while Leon sneaked away trying to find another way into the flat. He run up into the next story and shot the door open that belonged to the flat above the one where Riley was meant to be and entered it carefully. The flat the note had told them to go to wasn´t big enough to accommodate all hit men. Therefore it was quite possible that they were hiding in more than just one or they had split up and some of them were elsewhere right now, maybe still in the space station.

Silently the lizard walked on looking behind every corner before he entered the next room carefully listening for every sound that might tell him that a person was behind him. For a few moments all that was audible was the noise that came from below but then he thought to have heard a rustling and to have seen a fast movement in the corner of his eye.

Abruptly Leon turned around having a closer look but there was nothing to be seen yet he was sure there had been someone if it hadn´t just been someones frightened pet-cat. Next to him was an open door that led into a bedroom and Leon entered observantly looking around.

He tried to remember in which direction the movement had been exactly and then slowly walked towards the bed pulling the blanked aside but there was nothing beneath it. Yet he knew he hadn´t been mistaken when he had thought to have seen something. Carefully the lizard bent down to look if anything was beneath the bed as a small figure jumped out with a shrill shriek and tried to run past him but Leon grabbed the figure by its arm.

It had just been a small ocelot-child who was now staring at him in fear. "Are you a crocodile?" the small girl timidly wanted to know.

"No, why the fuck would I be a crocodile?"

"Because I´m scared of crocodiles." the girl breathed.

"Well, maybe I am then. Is anyone else at home right now?" Leon wanted to know but the girl simply let out another shriek and burst into tears.

"You are a crocodile?! They eat people!" Stupid child!

"No, I am no fucking crocodile! Is there anyone but you in this flat right now?!" Leon demanded getting impatient with the girl.

The child kept staring at him for a moment. "You are."

"No, really? You better don´t get cheeky." Leon replied pointing his blaster at the child´s head that consequently started to shriek again. "Fuck, just be quiet." However, this didn´t change a thing. He was wasting his time here and the noise was no good either therefore he decided to put his blaster away again sighing in frustration. "Hey, quiet now. Is there anyone in this flat other than you and me?" he rephrased his question and the little girl shook her head.

"No they´re buying something, I dunno." she replied.

"Alright, listen. You creep under the bed again now and there you stay no matter what happens and you don´t say a word." Slowly Leon released the girl from his grip and she stumbled a step backwards but without running away. Instead she simply stared at him. "Creep under the bed." he urged her and she slowly did so as he walked towards the window to look down. There was the fire ladder he had been looking for.

Leon opened the window and started climbing down as he saw some figure turn up in the window. Alarmed he looked up to see it was only the little ocelot. "What the...? Go hide under the bed."

"What are you doing there is it burning?"

"No it isn´t! Just hide under the bed!" Leon replied angrily

"Mum says this ladder isn´t to be used unless it is burning. So is it burning?" the girl insisted.

"Yeah, well, I don´t care what your mum says! It´s not burning I´m just gonna visit someone."

"There´s a stair case, stupid. You´re odd." she said grinning at him.

Leon decided to ignore the child and climbed on. After all he had been wasting more than enough time. As he reached the window of the flat the floor below he smashed the window and climbed in.

He run through the room he had entered and shot two of the hit men before they had truly realized him. The screams and the blaster fire had been loud enough that no one had been paying any particular attention to the smashed window.

"Fuck! Can anyone kill that bastard?!" he heard one of the voices yell as he took cover behind the wall and three laser beams flashed past him followed by a grenade. Leon instantly leaped out of the way and avoided to be actually hit but the impact of the explosion was still strong enough to throw him against the wall.

Dazed the chameleon fell to the ground his ears ringing from the loud bang and unable to hear much else. For a moment he stayed on the ground. Everything seemed to be turning and his head hurt where it had hit the wall but he hadn´t forgotten where he was and what was going on around him.

With an agonized groan the lizard sat up shaking his head a few times trying to regain a clear consciousness and trying to drive the ringing sounds away. "Ow, fuck." Slowly he tried to get up but it made him feel a bit dizzy and he had to close his eyes not to fall down again.

xxx

Wolf and Panther had been fighting in a more defensive way since Leon had gone to find another way into the flat but they had soon started to get impatient wondering what took the lizard so long. After all they had a lack of time and should get finished and out of here as fast as possible.

Both of them thought it had been high time he showed up as the enemies suddenly seemed to be busy with someone coming from the back. They hadn´t hesitated to take their chance and tried to attack but not all the enemies had been confused enough to disregard the entrance and thus they hadn´t been able to get into a better position to shoot them.

Now they were again standing pressed against the wall trying to shoot the hit men and to find Riley but they weren´t even sure the rat was here. "Where´s Leon now? Shouldn´t him coming from the back enable us to shoot them?" Panther wanted to know.

"Leon?" Wolf ask but something was wrong with Leon´s com and the lizard couldn´t hear him. Cursing Wolf focused on shooting the enemies again.

"He´s in, but I guess there are too many of them." Wolf replied wishing he´d know more exactly what was going on behind those walls. He himself was a bit worried but this wasn´t the right time to think of anything else but the fight. To win and not to get killed he needed to stay fully concentrated and to not let anything distract him.

As if they hadn´t already been in enough trouble Panther spotted two armed people in the staircase coming towards them. It was the wolverine who had been involved in the first attempt on their lives and a huge shark they hadn´t seen before. "Wolf, look! That ain't good!" the feline exclaimed pointing at the two hit men.

"Don´t point at them just shoot them down!" Wolf ordered attempting to hit the enemies inside the flat but his shot only hit the wall again. "Fuck!" he cursed. If no miracle happened they´d have to retreat unsuccessfully plus they couldn´t tell Leon what they were doing. Hell, they didn´t even know if the lizard was still alive.

Panther tried to take out the two enemies attacking from behind but they returned fire and the feline had to duck not to be hit. There just was nowhere to take cover and if they stayed here for much longer there was no way they´d survive this battle. "Wolf?!" Panther ask sounding a bit panicky not knowing what to do.

"This way!" Wolf decided and broke the door of another flat to take cover behind it followed by Panther.

As soon as they had made sure no one was there who could shoot them from behind they stayed just behind the doorway and Wolf managed to injure the approaching shark. Yet the whole fight had absolutely not gone the way they would have wanted it to go.

"Wolf, isn´t it time we retreated?" the feline wanted to know.

"We mightn´t get another chance and we don´t know if Leon can retreat right now." No, they needed to finish this time. There was no point in doing half things.

xxx

Silja had been standing just around the corner since the early morning before the sun had risen patiently waiting for Star Wolf to arrive, hoping they really would. Nervous as she was she had even been worrying her note might have fallen out of Panther´s pocket and they never got her message. Therefore it had come as a relief as they had truly turned up and entered the right building. She just hoped they were prepared well and capable of handling this.

Now she had come a bit closer watching but there hadn´t been much to see at first. Other people had come running out of the building, shots and screams had been audible but of course she hadn´t really been able to see anything important till a slim figure had climbed out of the window and a small one had followed onto the window sill.

Confused she had been watching fearing the small figure might fall off and wondering what was going on inside the building. Was Riley dead by now? She didn´t even dare hope and somehow she couldn´t imagine he was.

She still was too scared to come much closer and felt deeply ashamed of her cowardice. After all she was just a powerless bystander as long as she didn´t dare face her fears. It was the second hardest thing she´d ever done but she needed to fight and not to let her fear paralyze her.

Silja slowly took a step towards the building. She had her blaster and thus was not defenseless but somehow she didn´t manage to convince herself of this. That she hadn´t managed to defend herself the first time she had met Riley didn´t mean she was incapable of fighting and winning but somehow it was only a faint rational voice in her head that told her so and the rest of her just wanted to turn and run.

The first time Silja had seen Riley on Fichina she had sworn herself to do whatever it´d take to kill him. Standing here and watching Star Wolf certainly wasn´t doing all she could. It took her all the mental strength she had to only force her legs to go on and she didn´t know how to manage do this if she met Riley face to face but the thing she wanted the most was to have a life again and she´d never get it if she didn´t fight for it.

Even though it was cold the jackal-girl was sweating as she went into the building following two of Riley´s men in a safe distance who had entered. If there was any way she could influence the outcome of this fight she´d try her best; at least she hoped she would.

Silja took a deep breath trying in vain to calm herself. What if she´d truly find Riley? She didn´t know what it would cause inside her mind; living through all the night mares even more vivid than at night time. Would it stop her from reacting fast enough to shoot him? She just couldn´t tell but it was time she found out. Silja had decided that she had lived in fear long enough and now she had to learn to face the reality. But it wasn´t that easy.

She started to run up the stairs as the two hit men reached the story where Wolf and Panther were standing being perfect targets for everyone coming from behind. For a horrible moment she thought in shock this was the end of the fight but they retreated through another door just in time. As one of the hit men was injured she reached them without being realized by anyone as they were fully concentrated on fighting Wolf and Panther.

Again she tried to calm herself to steady her slightly trembling hands and to convince herself that she was able to affect the outcome of this battle. Her hands were almost not shaking anymore as she aimed but she still felt insecure. The only thing she had tried to shoot so far and truly hit had been targets and she needed to try hard not to let this fact completely unsettle her. Those were people but after all they were not much better than Riley, or at least she tried to believe this.

Silja pulled the trigger and a laser beam hit the wolverine´s hand turning it into a bloody mass. With a scream of pain the man bent over his arm and for a moment Silja could do nothing but stare at what she had caused. However, she knew the fight wasn´t won and she used all her determination to take her eyes off him and react to the shark who spun round as he realized they were attacked from behind.

Simultaneously they pointed their weapons at each other. Silja forgot to breathe and shot watching the shark fall to the ground as a laser beam hit his chest. In shock she stumbled a step backwards watching the pool of blood that formed around the body lying on the ground.

She had just killed someone and it left her completely confused. Silja didn´t know what to think or to feel. It was why she had come here. She had come here to fight and yet it felt wrong. The man she had killed might even have been involved in destroying her life and he certainly would have destroyed many more but did that really make it any better?

Even though she was completely aware of the stupidity of this action she couldn´t help closing her eyes for a moment trying to remind herself of her reasons to fight. She wanted to live and she wanted Riley to die and she did not want to consider if this was right or wrong. She couldn´t use any second thoughts right now nor could she use them at any other time.

xxx

Wolf heard someone cry out in pain and then no shots hit the doorway he was more or less standing in anymore. The lupine stood there for a moment being quite astonished.

"Leon?!" Panther ask but no one replied.

"Leon?!" Wolf repeated a bit louder but again there was no answer. But if it hadn´t been Leon who had shot the hit men down, who had it been then? Wolf just couldn´t figure out what might have happened. Carefully he peered round the corner to see someone stand in the hallway. It was the jackal-girl who had been involved in the first fight too. But hadn´t she tried to shoot him back then? Why would she turn against his enemies now? It made little sense.

Yet the most confusing thing about her appearance was how much she seemed to be out of place just as it had been the first time he had seen her. One of the hit men was still alive but the girl stared at the other and held her blaster lowered till she realized Wolf and her attention was drawn to him. She didn´t move but continued to look at him her mouth slightly gaped. Just who was that girl?

Her brightly shining icy eyes had a very disturbing effect Wolf didn´t like. They made him feel a little stupid because he couldn´t figure out why he was so confused and because they seemed to be telling so much about her and at the same time nothing at all.

Slowly Wolf took a step forwards and the girl took one backwards. He didn´t even know why her presence her involvement and her intentions bothered him that much after all she didn´t seem to be too dangerous. He tried to read her expression to find out what was going on in her mind but the things he saw in her eyes were the same he had seen in the bar and they told him nothing that would answer his questions. There was an unmistakable expression of fear, curiosity and something he couldn´t interpret.

"Wolf! Watch out!" Panther warned him and shot someone behind him. Fuck! Had he just completely disregarded the enemies from behind? This was a very amateurish and very stupid mistake and he absolutely couldn´t tell how he could have forgotten about them. The whole situation was simply too confusing and he didn´t even know why it was.

Immediately he looked behind him but no one else tried to attack and he turned towards the jackal again walking a step towards her and she took one back. He tried again without the distance between them growing any smaller. "Wait!" he demanded. She didn´t do so. As he took the next step she went further back. "What are you doing here?!" She didn´t answer but just kept staring at him with the ever same expression. "Who are you?!" Her behavior was getting a bit irritating and unsettling.

"Stay here!" Again they simultaneously took a step into the same direction. This was getting annoying but Wolf didn´t understand why. He could have simply ignored her presence as long as she didn´t try to shoot him but somehow it didn´t work and he needed to know what she was doing here. Was it her who had written the note? But why?

Wolf walked faster towards her and she almost tripped over her own feet trying to walk backwards but then she turned round to run off and he after her. However, by the time he reached the staircase she was gone and he heard the sound of something hitting the ground. Obviously she had leaped over the banister and as he reached it to look down she had already got up and was continuing to flee. For a short moment Wolf just stared at the stairs. She indeed was strange.

"Wolf, would you help me here!" he hear Panther exclaim and turned away from the stairs again being annoyed about himself. They were extremely short of time and he was wasting it. He needed to stay focused on the fight and to not let anything distract him.

xxx

The battle was taking far too long for Leon´s liking and he started to consider retreating through the window he had used to enter the room. Usually he didn´t like to admit his failure to himself but it was necessary to realize if an undertaking was pointless otherwise you could easily get killed at the very least.

However, he changed his decision again as two hit men were shot from the other direction and he realized there were only three left who had stayed uninjured so far and one of them was Riley. The other two were the vampire and a raccoon.

As the lizard aimed again there was nothing to shoot at because the three remaining enemies had retreated into another room. He carefully went after them jumping out of the way not to be hit by any laser-beam. "Wolf! Panther! There are three left! You can come in but be careful!" he informed his team mates and tried to get closer to the door without being at too much danger of getting killed. There were four more hit men lying on the ground who where quite severely injured yet he wasn´t absolutely sure they´d not be able to shoot him anymore and thus he killed three of them and made sure no weapon was in the fourth ones reach. After all he still needed one alive should he not be able to ask Riley who their employer was.

The raccoon tried once more but took too long to take cover and Leon´s laser beam hit his opponent´s chest. "Two uninjured left!" the lizard told Wolf and Panther who entered the room now watching out not to be shot.

"Draco, you take the left side of the door. Don´t let them come any closer." he heard Riley demand. Leon, Wolf and Panther tried to shoot the remaining enemies but stayed unsuccessful for a while. However, they soon realized that there was only one person shooting at them anymore and no laser beams flew towards them after they heard a gasp of pain and someone fall to the ground.

Observantly they approached the door aiming into both directions as they reached it but Riley was gone, the raccoon was unconscious due to loss of blood or shock and the vampire was cowering on the ground bleeding from his leg.

All three of them looked around a little confused for a while searching for Riley till they realized the open window. That coward obviously had told his men to protect the door and sneaked away unnoticed by them.

Wolf ran to the window and looked down but there was no trace of Riley and sirens were growing louder. It had taken the police quite a while to come here anyway. "Fuck! We don´t have any more time. We need to get out of here." Wolf noticed.

"Yes and fast." Panther replied starting to get nervous.

They didn´t get Riley and not all his men had been here but they had killed most of them and there also were some living ones left Leon could ask all the things they needed to know. Smirking at that thought the lizard knocked the vampire out to take him to their base without him wriggling about.

Wolf and Panther were already out of the room as he picket the unconscious vampire up. "Leon! We´re running out of time!" Wolf reminded him impatiently and he hurried to follow them down the stairs out into the streets and back to the car they had come with.

Leon quickly searched his unconscious captive for armor or other objects and dropped everything he found onto the ground while Wolf and Panther were about to get into the car as Wolf realized a sudden movement behind another car. Someone was watching them.

He walked over to Leon who was standing closer to this someone hiding his intentions and leaped over the car in a quick move grabbing the one who was trying to run off and recognizing the jackal-girl.

"Hey! What are you...?" he tried to ask but she elbowed him in the face and tried to pull free kicking around.

Wolf pressed the jackal-girl to the ground to stop her from hitting him but she stubbornly kept wriggling about and bit into his wrist in a completely pointless effort to free herself as he was wearing cloves. "Now stop it!" he demanded but it took a few more tries of her till she accepted that fighting wouldn´t help her and lay still staring at him with her usual scared and withdrawn yet stubborn expression. Even now her beautiful icy eyes had a stunning effect.

"Now tell me what you´re doing here?"

She didn´t say a word trying to push him off but she must have known how futile her attempt was and it appeared to be more a symbolic act.

"What are you doing here? On whom´s side are you?" Wolf demanded.

"Not on Riley´s." It was the first time he heard her speak and her voice wasn´t like he would have thought it´d sound. It didn´t suit the shy scared little girl she seemed to be and there was so much hate in it as she said Riley´s name.

"You know Riley?" Wolf wanted to know. At least this made sense. Then she had possibly given them the note with the address hoping they´d kill him.

"Vaguely." she replied evasively.

"A bit more exactly if possible."

"It ain´t possible!" the jackal-girl snapped glaring at him and biting into his wrist again. This was starting to get on his nerves as the sirens had grown loud enough to tell the police would arrive within a matter of seconds.

"Wolf, we need to go. Now!" Panther reminded him and got into the car nervously waiting for the others. He´d really prefer if no other fight was necessary and they could simply disappear.

Meanwhile Leon had finished tying up the vampire and stowed him away in the trunk watching Wolf and the jackal lying on the ground.

"You could take her with and interrogate her in our base." Leon suggested.

"Leon she´s an ally. By interrogate you hopefully only mean ask questions and not do your stuff!" Panther protested. And she was pretty. He didn´t want to imagine anyone hurting her.

"We know she´s an enemy of our enemies. Doesn´t necessarily make her be an ally."

"Alright, and what are you doing here now?" Wolf ask her impatiently.

"Lying on the ground." she replied aggressively but it was more than obvious that she in fact was absolutely terrified and just compensating it.

"Wolf take her with or let go of her but do it NOW." Panther urged him.

"Alright." he replied and spoke on addressing the jackal-girl: "Don´t start hitting around again. No one means any harm in you." Slowly he eased his grip on her waiting for her reaction. The girl kept glaring at him but didn´t move as he picked her up and pushed her towards the car. "Get in."

Silja didn´t know herself why she didn´t immediately try to run off. All the things that had happened today hadn´t been planned. Riley should have been killed but she knew he wasn´t. Star Wolf shouldn´t have seen her and now she was reluctantly but more or less voluntarily getting into the car even though it utterly scared her. Yet she reacted to the whole situation with a strange curiosity she hadn´t felt for a too long time and didn´t know how to handle it.

However, she wasn´t the only one who was completely confused. Wolf still couldn´t tell what her part in the game was nor could he have told why it was of that big interest to him. And he really hadn´t a lot of time to figure anything out as he was quite in a hurry to get away from here.

"Would you tell us now why you had been there and what you were doing?" he tried again driving the car and the jackal-girl seemed to feel very uneasy as she answered.

"Trying to see if you would manage to kill Riley."

"Then you told us where to find them?" Panther wanted to know and she nodded. "Guess, she´s an ally then." he noted.

"You appeared to want to kill us the first time we met. Why?" Wolf went on and she gave him a puzzled look as an answer. "When you shot at us."

"I didn´t."

"I´m not blind. I know what I saw."

For a moment she just looked at him before she slowly begun to speak. "And what you didn´t see? There was one of Riley´s men behind you."

Wolf reconsidered said day for a moment. Her version of what happened would explain a lot and there was nothing he knew it would contradict plus there indeed had been hit men attacking from the other direction. Somehow he liked this version much better than what he originally had assumed but he couldn´t yet make do with her explanation. "And the following us and fighting afterwards?"

"I hoped to find out a few things."

"What things?"

"I dunno. Anything." Silja shrugged her shoulders. She didn´t even dislike that conversation but it made her feel very nervous and uneasy in a very familiar way and in another very confusing one. Some paranoid inner voice told her to jump out off the car and flee, told her she was in immediate danger and yet she couldn´t tell if she hated this situation or liked it in an awkward way.

"And the fighting." Wolf ask.

"Did I know your intentions?"

"If I had wanted to kill you I could just have shot you."

She stayed quiet for a moment looking down at her feet. "That´s not what I was worried about." she almost inaudibly replied.

"Then what is it you were worried about. Do you ever fully answer a question?" Wolf ask trying not to get angry about her evasive way of answering.

Silja glanced to the back with an awkward expression on her face. "Don´t you know who he is?"

"We know each other for about seventeen years now! I should hope he knows who I am!" Leon protested making her twitch nervously. "But that´s not too far-fetched." he added with a nasty smirk. After all she really could have ended up in the same situation as the vampire in the trunk.

"How did you know where Riley was?" Wolf went on. He was quite sure his original assumptions concerning her had been wrong but there were a lot of things left she didn´t explain so far.

"Coincidence."

"A bit more exactly." Her evasive answers were getting more than just a little annoying.

"Just saw him by coincidence and followed him, listened to a few things he said and so on." she explained not telling him much more than she had already.

"Then you know something about him?"

"Something but not a lot."

"Do you for example know where he could be hiding now?" Wolf inquired and Silja looked down at her feet again instead of answering. "Yes or no?" She slowly shook her head. Something about her was really odd and she still hadn´t said a thing about why she wanted Riley to be killed. It seemed as if she avoided talking about it just as about many other things.

"Do you know anything of importance about him?" Silja just twitched again and shrugged her shoulders ducking away. "Look, I do not mean any harm in you. Just calm down."

She hesitated for a moment before she shyly spoke. "I don´t know anything that would help you find him. There actually is no point in taking me with."

"Does Riley know about your involvement?"

She nodded. "He didn´t at first but now he does."

"Won´t he want to kill you then?" Wolf ask. This definitely suggested itself but Wolf wasn´t quite sure why he cared. Maybe because she had tried to help them.

Again Silja nodded and shrugged her shoulders looking down at her feet as she did most of the time.

"Where would you go then? Do you have any place where he won´t find you?"

"I dunno." she mumbled turning towards the window and looking out.

"That means `no´, doesn´t it?" Wolf inquired. If she didn´t know a thing the easiest way would have been to let her go again but she didn´t seem capable of surviving it and somehow it felt wrong to leave her to her fate.

The jackal-girl kept staring out of the window not showing any reaction to Wolf´s question. She knew herself that the things that had gone wrong today could easily cost her her life. But was it even worth a thing anymore? She had tried to win a new life and it appeared she had lost. With a sigh she closed her eyes. "It´ll be alright. I´ll get along." Most probably everyone could tell it was a lie but she just wondered why she´d still care or why anyone else would.

"Unless he´ll find you." Wolf noted and she shrugged her shoulders again staring at some random point on the horizon.

"Don´t be scared. Why don´t you just come with us. Riley won´t know where to find us and even if he does he wouldn´t dare attack. You´d be absolutely save. None of us means any harm in you and we won´t let Riley get anywhere near you." Panther tried to calm her.

However, Silja considered this suggestion quite frightening not knowing if her fear was rational or the paranoid fear that was always a part of her. Yet she knew it might be her only chance to survive and there was another reason she didn´t want to admit to herself why she might not want to decline this offer. Slowly she nodded.

"You didn´t mention your name yet, did you?"

"My name´s Silja Sciacallo."


	6. Tell me

This was way more difficult to write than I first assumed and thus took me quite a while. I hope it turned out at least halfway well. Rated M for a reason!

**Shreds of lives**

"**Tell me..."**

Everyone in the car had fallen silent lost in their very own thoughts, needing a rest after the battle, awaiting their arrival back at their base in excited anticipation or slowly waking up and realizing in horror that something was going awfully wrong.

The first of it was what Wolf and Silja were doing. Luckily they had left the town far behind already and were in the middle of nowhere because the thing Wolf was paying the least attention to was driving. Actually they had even been lucky it had been possible to drive from their base to the town today. There were no real connections and if the weather was rough it was a stupid and dangerous thing to do. However, they also couldn´t go by their Wolfen as they´d clearly attract too much attention.

There were still many things Wolf didn´t understand. Actually he should have been frustrated or at least disappointed because Riley had escaped and they didn´t know how much his underlings would know about their employer – they didn´t even know for sure Riley knew a thing – but somehow he wasn´t in a halfway as bad mood as he would have expected. In fact his mood wasn´t bad at all which was a little distracting but not as distracting as Silja was. Just why? It was an awkward and stupid thing yet it didn´t feel as if it was a bad thing.

Silja however was less sure if all that had gone on today was a bad thing or not. On the one hand the others presence still made her feel incredibly uneasy and she had to fight the urge to jump out of the car but on the other hand she couldn´t remember to have felt that close to being truly alive a single time within the past three years. Maybe, just maybe, she didn´t merely exist – but how could that be? Riley was still alive after all. And this was the second problem. She had known others would die that day but she had solely been craving Riley´s death. Yet he lived and others had died and that was far from being the worst thing she had caused. Even though it felt horribly wrong she tried not to think of the vampire in the trunk of the car. Just what had she done? All she had wanted to do was live but now it seemed she had gone too far.

Panther´s mind clearly was the most inactive at that moment even though the vampire was only slowly recovering from unconsciousness. The feline was simply dozing and no one even knew if he was still awake or fast asleep.

And the one looking forwards to their arrival back at their base starting to get more and more impatient in anticipation was Leon. After all he finally had what he had wanted and could finally do what he wanted to do. Even though Wolf was already driving way too fast for the given circumstanced he wished the lupine would drive faster. He just was so excited he couldn´t wait any longer.

Draco at first couldn´t tell what was going on as the first impressions and perceptions started to return to him. His head felt heavy and dazed and somehow everything wasn´t the way it was meant to be but he didn´t know why or in what way. Even though he couldn´t yet think something started to deeply worry him. Only later; he couldn´t tell how much later; he realized what it was that felt so wrong. He was lying in a place he couldn´t attribute to anything. Blurred pictures started to flash through his misty mind. They were confusing, hurried and scary. There had been a fight but how had it ended? Instinctively Draco wanted to move his hands to his head where a dull pain radiated from but his arms didn´t move. In fright he tried again but something kept them on his back almost making his stomach turn as he realized what it was. They obviously had lost the fight. Suddenly fully awake the vampire tried to get up in a futile desperate struggle to free himself but only managed to bump his head. Wherever he was it was too dark for his widened eyes to perceive a thing but suffocating blackness and it was claustrophobically narrow and rumbling.

As no one was talking bumping sounds coming from the back of the car were audible in the front even though they weren´t very loud. Everyone could easily tell where they came from but it only brought a smirk to one of their faces. Neither Wolf nor Panther really appreciated Leon´s `hobby´ but merely accepted him the way he was preferring him to be out of visibility and earshot if he was going after it.

Silja, however, found it much more difficult to accept things the way they were but didn´t dare say a word. Instead she just screwed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth hating herself for her own cowardice. This was all her fault. Wherever she went everyone would suffer and die. Suppressing a sob she bumped her head against the windowpane.

Realizing her reaction and his own unease Wolf consciously had a look where he was driving for the first time in quite a while. They´d soon reach their base; only a few more minutes to go. However, those minutes seemed to take much longer than they really did going by incredibly slowly.

"When are we gonna reach the base?" Panther ask even though he could tell himself but he suddenly experienced the silence as very unpleasant plus Silja didn´t know.

"Five more minutes to go." Wolf replied.

"Um... ..." Panther tried hard to come up with something to say but just couldn´t think of anything that wasn´t related to what was going on at the moment and somehow this also didn´t seem to be the right time to talk about something irrelevant like the weather. Chewing on his lip the feline thought about a way to distract Silja and himself too but didn´t manage to come up with anything. It was so obvious she was about to burst into tears but there was no way to take her mind off the things she didn´t want to know.

Wolf and Panther had experienced in multiple situations how long five minutes could be and this was one of them. So both of them were quite in a hurry as Wolf parked the car. "C´mon." Wolf told Silja leading her into the base which in fact was a huge landed space ship and continued addressing Leon: "You wait a few minutes and close every door in between, will ya!"

The lizard nodded not taking his eyes off the trunk with an expression on his face that made Silja feel sick. Right at that moment she´d have liked to just turn and run away to pretend the whole day hadn´t happened but there was nothing but snow around her and if she returned to the city Riley would find her.

"Come on now." Wolf urged her and she slowly took her gaze of Leon and the car following after Wolf and Panther. Though her mind was occupied with other things Silja couldn´t help realizing that Star Wolf´s base was quite impressive albeit some things seemed to be in need of repair. She let her gaze wander trying to take everything in on the one hand because it slightly helped her to distract herself and because she was truly impressed and on the other hand because she wanted to remember the way she had come in to be able to find the way out again should she need to. After all she couldn´t trust Star Wolf. She hardly knew them and their reputation wasn´t the best either.

"So what do you think. Nice hide out isn´t it?" Wolf ask her while showing the way.

"Um" Silja shrugged her shoulders realizing it was a thing she did far too often. She paused for a moment. "Yeah, well, I guess so."

"Did I just get a verbal answer? You can talk after all." Wolf noted making Silja stop abruptly with a frightened expression on her face even though he didn´t think he had sounded threatening.

"What is it now again? I´m not gonna do a thing to you. I think I told you this before, didn´t I?" Wolf explained to her but the expression of mistrust remained in her eyes as she slowly started to follow again. He just shook his head as he went on. She seriously had some issues.

Now the rooms they were walking through looked more like living space even halfway comfortable though they didn´t exactly meet Siljas taste. As Wolf and Panther sat down on a sofa she just stopped in the middle of the room staring at them making Wolf role his eye. "Are you coming now or what?"

Slowly she approached them sitting down as far away from them as possible eying her shoes and awkwardly fidgeting with her feet making Wolf sigh in frustration. She really was trying his patience.

"Do not worry. There´s no need to be scared, I promise. Everything is gonna be alright." Panther tried to calm her but it wasn´t that easy as none of them could tell what was wrong with her.

Slowly she looked up at them trying to smile but failing miserably. "Look, there are a few things that would be good if we knew. Do you think you can try to answer a few questions in case you know the answer?" Wolf wanted to know hoping not to say anything that would scare her again. He really wasn´t very good at being careful about the things he said but he was trying his best.

Silja was shaking a little as she shyly nodded. She basically had known there were things that required explanation the time she had got in the car. Yet she wasn´t really prepared for it. There were just so many things she didn´t want to talk or even think about.

"Do you know Riley." Wolf ask.

"I... met him before. I already said so but I do not actually know him. I saw him the first time about three years ago but then I didn´t anymore until recently." she explained slightly ducking away.

"Alright. The thing he did back then isn´t related to his current job, is it?" Wolf went on and Silja looked at her feet again shaking her head.

"No, it isn´t. He was a professional killer back then but I don´t think it´s the same people who hired him." she almost inaudibly replied. It really wasn´t that easy to get information out of her. Wolf wished she´d talk a bit more voluntarily and he´d not have to drag everything out of her bit by bit.

"And do you know who hired him back then or now?" She only shook her head.

"Can you tell anything about Riley by your previous experience with him? Any weak-points, personality, anything?"

"I dunno. Maybe nothing you don´t know already."

"Alright, would you tell us the things you know no matter if we might already know them too?!" Wolf really was starting to get annoyed. He was truly trying to be patient but her stupid behavior didn´t make it any easier. Yet he thought losing his tempt wouldn´t help him get any information plus she was already more than mistrusting enough.

"He´s not brave and in many ways he´s very careful but in others he tends to be quite careless." Silja explained. Otherwise she´d not be alive anymore because if he had been more careful the blade wouldn´t have missed her heart three years ago. "He, well, isn´t nice. Basically not to anyone though he can manipulate people into trusting him but he´ll never care about anyone. I think he can´t feel a thing for people. He can only take advantage of them. Yet some of his people seem to be quite loyal towards him. I think he truly enjoys his job as long as he isn´t in any danger of getting killed himself." She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, well, he doesn´t care whom he is working for what he is working for or why as long as it´s well paid. Sorry, I really don´t know a thing."

Basically this only confirmed what they had already figured out about him. Wolf could only hope Leon would be more successful in getting useful information.

"Not all of Riley´s underlings were in the flat you told us to go to. Do you have any idea where the rest of them was at that time?" Wolf inquired.

"They said something about a space station but I don´t know anything about it."

"When did they talk about it?" Wolf wanted to know. They certainly had done so before they had tried to ambush them there but if they had also done afterwards this might mean the space station was still in use.

"Yesterday and earlier too." Silja replied shyly.

"Well, that´s at least something. If we don´t get any better information we should have a look there again. They might lack people right now and this betters our chances." Wolf considered making Silja close her eyes and bite onto her lip.

"Wolf!" Panther admonished him in a disapproving voice but Wolf only looked at him with a startled expression. What had he done wrong now? He couldn´t tell, however, he could tell by Siljas expression he had said something that upset her. "If we don´t get any better information." Panther mouthed inaudibly repeating Wolf´s words.

xxx

As the car he was lying in stopped Draco fell absolutely silent waiting in horror and trying to tell by the conversation and audible actions of the people around what was going on but all he could hear was some people getting out of the car. "C´mon" a deep voice said and three pairs of feet started to walk away but stopped again for a short moment making Draco anxiously hold his breath. "You wait a few minutes and close every door in between, will ya!" the same voice that had spoken before continued and said: "Come on now." addressing someone else. Then the footsteps faded away and everything grew completely silent. Wait a few minutes with what? He couldn´t hear anyone but someone was still here. Draco thought he needed to vomit. What was going on here? Just why was this happening? Some stupid part of him still desperately wished there was another explanation for the things he had heard and perceived but basically he knew he hadn´t misinterpreted the situation no matter how much he wished he had.

Impatiently Leon was waiting till Wolf´s, Panther´s and Silja´s footsteps had died away. Now just a few more moments till they were out of earshot and then he could get started. Most probably his captive had already figured out what was going to happen. Leon could hardly wait to see the expression of sheer terror in his eyes. Slowly the lizard approached the car his lips curling to an evil smile as he opened the trunk looking down at the vampire who was desperately moving as far back as he could staring at Leon his eyes widened in horror and pleadingly shaking his head.

"Now, come. There are a few things we need to talk about." Leon explained with a nasty undertone smirking at the desperate vampire and pulled him out of the trunk dropping him to the ground. Draco fell on his nose and tried to turn round but with his arms tied to his back it wasn´t that easy. Shuffling away from Leon he sat up helplessly trying to think of any way to escape but it was completely hopeless.

Slowly Leon approached him and Draco tried to move further back but there was a wall behind him and he couldn´t possible move any further than that. "Where do you think you are going? No point in tying to run off, believe me. Now be good and behave, my little vampire." Leon told his captive and stood the trembling creature up aiming his blaster at him after undoing the ropes around his legs. "You come with me now." Leon demanded the same sickening smile still on his face.

Draco shook his head in despair pressing himself against the wall trembling so much he could hardly stand. "Oh, yes you will come with me." Leon said pressing his blaster against the vampire´s temple and pulling him towards the door. Draco didn´t really resist but walked on with a stifled sob. This was all too real, too immediate yet it seemed strangely unrealistic and blurred like a haunted nightmare. There just was no way to wake up.

Leon wasn´t in a hurry at all savoring every single moment of watching every reaction and little move of the vampire that told of his fear and despair with delight. He´d have all the time he needed and he´d make the most of it. He even hoped his captive wouldn´t too easily give him all the information he wanted to have. A little resistance to break truly would make the whole matter more interesting.

In silence they walked through corridors the only thing audible being their footsteps and the vampire´s frightened breath till they reached a metal room that once had been some sort of storage room but was more or less empty apart from two cupboards lining the wall now. As Leon opened the door pushing his captive inside Draco stopped abruptly and tried to move backwards but couldn´t. In panic he looked around almost bursting into tears. "No, keep still, will ya? There´s absolutely no point in wriggling about." Leon told him locking the door behind them. Now there was no way out anymore.

Keeping an eye on his captive Leon slowly walked over to a cupboard calmly preparing a few things. Draco had stumbled backwards to the opposite wall watching Leon take horrifying objects out of the cupboard and putting some of them back in obviously considering what to use. The vampire slumped to the ground burying his face in his knees and panting for breath. He didn´t want to see any of this. Why couldn´t Leon and the whole room just disappear?

It took a while till Leon had decided on something and walked over to the shaking creature cowering on the ground. He truly loved that sight. The vampire looked so scared, desperate and helpless it simply was priceless. Now Leon just needed to chain him up properly and then he could get started.

Draco didn´t move as his left hand was handcuffed to some solid pipes on the wall nor did he move as his shirt was taken off and the chain around his arm was opened for a short moment to do so. Instead tears started dripping down his face. "Please don´t." the vampire breathed almost inaudible though he knew it was pointless.

"Don´t? But that would be boring." a malicious voice replied as Draco´s other hand was chained to the wall and he closed his eyes. Why was this real? He just wanted to get out of here. Draco whimpered quietly as he felt the rest of his clothing being taken off and chains being attacked to his body to further immobilize him.

For a moment Leon just stood there looking down at the shaking exposed creature relishing the sight of his helpless despair and powerless fear. There was absolutely nothing he couldn´t do to him; no restriction on the power he had over him, and he was craving his blood and screams of pain.

Calmly Leon took one of the knives he had placed on the floor and sat down beside the vampire who kept his eyes shut and his face turned away from him. He first only softly pressed the razor-sharp blade against his captive´s cheek forcing him to turn his face towards him slightly scratching the skin. "Let´s get started, shall we?" the lizard ask in an evil honeyed voice.

"Would you look at me when I´m talking to you." He strengthened the pressure he put on the knife making a trickle of blood run down the vampire´s cheek. With a whimper Draco opened his eyes reluctantly looking into Leon´s and trying to move further away in vain. His breath was an irregular pant and his body covered in cold sweat as he was desperately looking for some faint hint of mercy in the others eyes but found nothing but cold bloodlust.

"But first tell me your name. After all I want to know whom I have here." Leon said sliding the knife a few inches further down the vampire´s cheek making him flinch.

"Draco Tunney." Draco replied tears shimmering in his eyes.

"Fine, I don´t think I need to introduce myself, do I?" Leon noted with a sneer. "Then let´s move on. You already figured out what we´re going to do? It´s in fact very simple. There are a few things I´d like to know and you´d better answer my questions truthfully or else..." Again the knife cut a little more skin on Draco´s cheek open.

Draco didn´t respond staring at the cold cruel eyes that filled his heart with terror far beyond any fear he had known before. He knew all too well what Leon would want him to tell and what he´d do if Draco refused to answer but he owed loyalty to Riley not just as an ally but as a true friend.

"Alright, you are working for Riley O´Maly, aren´t you? Tell me where that coward would be hiding now." Leon ask watching his captive´s reaction with dark cruel pleasure.

An expression of indescribable horror showed on Draco´s face as he shook his head trembling all over and saying "I can´t." in a deeply scared quivering voice. He knew the consequences of his resistance but he couldn´t have been prepared less for the immense body-racking pain that spread through his entire body as the blade slit through his cheek piercing into his gums and left a deep cut all the way down to the end of his chin.

He screwed his eyes shut screaming in pain and coughing out what seemed to be liters of blood that spilled into his mouth. Gasping and panting for breath he spat out the sickening taste of iron trying to calm his racing heart as sweat pored down his body.

Nothing but unspeakable panic remained in his mind wiping out every thought as Leon placed the blade just a short distance from where the first cut was. "So, let´s try this again. Can you now?" the lizard ask making tears of pain and pure terror spill down Draco´s face. But Draco couldn´t betray Riley, he couldn´t possible betray his only friend.

"Please I can´t! Please!" he cried in overwhelming panic. Once more Leon jabbed the knife into Draco´s blood- and tear-soaked face causing the arousing screams of excruciating pain enraptured by the violent spasms contorting the vampire´s body and face. Exhilarated by the feeling of unrestricted power Leon watched Draco cry and gasp for breath relishing every single moment of torturing his captive.

The vampire was a naive fool not to realize Riley was only using him and taking advantage of his craving for friendship and affection. Despicable... yet Leon possibly wouldn´t have been much different if Wolf hadn´t proved to be a true friend.

xxx

"Actually, our base can fly. It´s a space ship but we usually don´t." Panther explained to Silja who had been wondering why it was landed in the middle of nowhere. She still avoided to reveal anything about herself but she at least dared to talk and seemed to have almost forgotten about her fear and twinges of guilt.

"But why not and why situate it on Fichina?" Silja ask curiously. She knew her own reasons to have moved to this icy dreary planet but couldn´t understand why anyone else would voluntarily live here.

"Well, business is running slow and fuel is ridiculously expensive. Now, you did see the size of this thing didn´t you. It cost an awful lot of money. Not that we wouldn´t have it of course but as long as missions don´t require to move around with our base there´s no need." Panther told her.

Silja nodded. She had no idea how much fuel a ship of this size needed but most probably more than she could imagine. "And why Fichina?" she wanted to know.

"Fichina? I hate the heat." Wolf replied. Looking at his thick fur the jackal-girl assumed that he really wouldn´t freeze a lot not even on this planet.

"Yeah, well, no one understands why it needs to be Fichina. It´s a horrible planet." Panther complained. "I for my part would prefer Aquas. It´s a lovely planet with a lot of white sandy beaches, better drinks, breathtaking sunsets (scantily or not at all dressed women)."

"It´s also for practical reasons. Easier to hide it here than on Aquas." Wolf explained.

"But what´s a young lovely beauty like yourself doing on this frozen hell?" Panther ask Silja.

"Me? I like the cold." she shrugged her shoulders. Fichina was very different to her home-world. The nasty rough weather and dead land helped her to leave her memories behind and the cold outside was much alike the way she felt inwardly. It was strangely consoling but she didn´t know how to explain and feared to even think of it.

"You like the...?! How could anyone possibly like the cold?" Panther ask in bewilderment.

Silja twitched in a nervous habit. She really had become to like the conversation but couldn´t just put aside her fear and shyness. Yet it made her feel whole – almost like a person – in a strange way she couldn´t understand. "I don´t know. It´s rough; it´s pretty; unpredictable; sometimes the weather can change within a matter of seconds. I think its beauty really goes unseen."

"Beautiy? Dear, you seriously think of Fichina as beautiful?" Panther wondered. He couldn´t understand why anyone would like this planet. To Wolf, however, this sounded less weird after all he liked Fichina himself but he wouldn´t have expected the always shivering timid jackal-girl to love the cold and stormy weather. In many ways she apparently was very different to how she seemed to be and he couldn´t even tell how she seemed to be. "There´s nothing beautiful about cold and nasty." the feline noted.

"Well, not for little pussy cats like you." Wolf mockingly grinned at Panther who gave him a sour look even though he was all too used to those little side-remarks and even Silja who didn´t know the both of them could tell it was no serious insult.

"Not liking biting cold storms got nothing to do with being a little pussy-cat." Panther protested.

"Then a wimp?" Wolf suggested.

"No not a wimp either."

"A limp-dick?"

"Definitely not."

"Then a..." Wolf took a moment thinking of another word he thought was appropriate for describing Panther. Meanwhile Panther picked up a remote control as if considering to throw it at Wolf´s head.

"You gonna throw that at me?" Wolf wanted to know grinning at Panther who put the remote control down again.

"No, I´m not throwing things at mentally retarded people." he remarked with the hint of a contemptuous smile but without seeming to be angry. Silja just watched them with a small grin on her face. The whole situation was confusing but she more and more became to like it.

"What about a sissy?" Silja suggested halfway grinning but still in a shy manner.

"Yup, let´s say he´s a sissy." Wolf agreed. "Hey, Panther what about her? You gonna throw this at her head or is she mentally retarded too?"

"No I´m not throwing things at girls on principle." Panther opposed Wolf´s suggestion as if it was an unthinkable thing.

"So does this mean girls are mentally retarded on principle?" Silja concluded with a timid grin.

"I never said that. There can be different reasons not to throw things at different people." Panther explained. He didn´t know why everyone instantly thought it was amusing to make fun of him but at least Silja seemed to be at ease now, was smiling and apparently had forgotten about all her problems for the time being.

"So you´re not throwing things at mentally retarded people and at people you want to fuck?" Wolf summed it up.

"Why do you think that´s the only reason?" Panther wanted to know.

"Well, if you throw things at their heads they mightn´t want to have sex with you."

"But then he could throw something at a really really ugly girl´s head because it´d not matter if she didn´t want to have sex with him." Silja noted.

"Only to make this clear: I am also not throwing things at girls who are not that beautiful. Hell, I´m usually not throwing things at people at all."

Oddly enough it was the first time since a fateful day three years ago Silja didn´t feel lonely and there was a strange warmth inside her that seemed to melt the ice that separated her from the world around her. She didn´t know why she dropped her guard now and ignored her feeling of insecurity but maybe she had wandered in dark winter for a too long time. Only a few hours ago she wouldn´t have believed she could ever think of Wolf and Panther as likable people, after all they were mercenaries, killers, but now it felt so natural and she felt alive. Yet it was frightening.

xxx

Unbearable waves of hot pain spread through Draco´s entire body making him scream and cough for breath in hopeless struggles to pull free. Never would he have believed anything could possibly hurt that much and yet not kill him. All he was craving was an end to all of it but his senses just didn´t fade away. Just why would it never end?

Draco didn´t know how much time had passed since he had woken up into this nightmare and he didn´t know how long his body could still take things he couldn´t but both seemed to be endless. There was no past that mattered anymore and there´d not be any future leafing nothing but the very moment of excruciating inexorable pain shattering his body and mind. Why didn´t death finally put him out of this misery? But no matter how desperately Draco was trying to die it just wouldn´t work and no matter how alienated he felt to his destroyed and maltreated body he couldn´t leave it.

The vampire´s body was covered with blood trembling all over and growing weaker from exhaustion. Pools of blood and tears were staining the floor and coloring Leon´s tools crimson. All Draco´s desperate pleading to stop appeared to fall on deaf ears only serving Leon to his delight. The lizard was holding a rasp in his hand that was covered in blood and small flakes of flesh and bone. One and a half of Draco´s fingers were missing and blood was gushing out of the open wounds streaming down his hand and arm.

"Please stop it. Why can´t you just kill me?" Draco´s desperate voice was growing weaker but the pain wasn´t, making him yell once more as the rasp grated away some more flesh and bone.

"Because you still didn´t answer my questions. You could simply tell me where Riley is hiding or do you really think it´s worth suffering for that filthy rat who betrayed you?" Leon replied. He took great pleasure in every moment of torturing the unfortunate vampire but it really was time he got his answers because not only Draco´s resistance but also his body was growing weaker with every new injury and there wasn´t much life left in it.

"No. He didn´t betray me. That´s not possible." Draco sobbed. Ever since he had met Riley he had thought of him as his only true friend and now that sadist was trying to talk him into believing Riley had only used him.

"And why are you here then and not Riley? You were in the same room, weren´t you? Why wouldn´t I have taken Riley then instead of asking you where he is if Riley had still been there but that coward ordered you to guard the door and made his escape leafing you to your fate. Is that what a friend would do?"

"No! He didn´t. That can´t be. That can´t be, can it?" Draco refused to believe any of it. The problem was just that the lizard´s words made sense and that his foggy mind didn´t want to feel any more pain. But if Leon´s words were true this didn´t only mean that Draco´s life was over but also that he had never had any and that all he had believed to have ever had was a lie. "That can´t be." the vampire sobbed in utter despair.

"No? Can´t it? Think it over. You´re not that stupid, are you? You must realize that Riley wouldn´t have acted the way he did if he had ever cared about you." Leon tried to persuade the vampire. Draco slowly shook his head but doubt was clearly visible in his eyes. Now Leon was almost sure he´d soon have his captive talk.

"No. Why would he...? I... can´t." Draco´s quivering voice was chocked with tears. He couldn´t tell if the rasp slowly grating his finger away or the realization that he had been suffering for absolutely nothing was more painful. Those two pains weren´t comparable. The first one had been tearing his body apart, this one was tearing his heart apart. "Why would he do this?"

"Because he never was worth your loyalty and because he only planned on using you from the beginning on."

"There are a few places he could have fled to." Draco slowly caved. "But I can´t tell for sure. He could be at the space station where we tried to ambush you but that´s unlikely. He knows you would look for him there. Other than that we have an underground base near Palm-City on Titania but currently don´t use it. I don´t know if he´d go there. See, he mightn´t be so stupid and hide in any place I know and for the time being he could really just rent any flat on any planet."

Draco lay completely limply on the ground his eyes half closed. He was too tired to scream but the pains didn´t ease. Everything seemed strangely unreal and yet it was too immediate and horrible to comprehend.

"Alright, and do you know who hired Riley?" Leon wanted to know.

"I... I don´t know. Please, I really got no idea. There´s no reason why I´d lie." Though hardly audible anymore Draco´s voice was a desperate pleading. He simply couldn´t bear any more pain nor could he bear the pain he was already in.

Usually this wasn´t an answer Leon would be contented with but the vampire´s state made it impossible to continue torturing him for much longer plus he could tell he wasn´t trying to keep any information back and in fact the maltreated and torn body lying on the ground should have been Riley. Therefore he decided he´d just ask a few more questions and see if Draco knew anything of importance.

"Do you know when Riley got the job to kill us?"

"About two months ago, I think, but he was told to only prepare and to wait till he was ordered to start." Draco replied. This could mean that there indeed was a connection to the other assassination-attempts that were carried out at the same time – maybe.

"And was Riley hired to kill anyone else at the same time or do you know of anyone who was hired by the same people." Leon ask hoping the vampire´s answers would shed some light on what they were dealing with but it didn´t surprise him that Draco didn´t know anything.

"Riley didn´t have any other job the same time and I don´t know who hired him." Draco´s eyes fell shut. He was breathing a bit calmer now but didn´t yet seem to be unconscious.

"Do you know why we were meant to be assassinated?"

Draco slightly shook his head mumbling something almost inaudible slowly drifting of into a state near sleep. Leon put the rasp onto the floor next to the other things he had used to torture the vampire. The things Draco had told him weren´t a lot but if they were lucky they´d find Riley and then that rat would die a slow and painful death no matter if he talked or not.


	7. Never thought to feel this way

Sorry for the long long time it took me to update if anyone is still reading this. Somehow this chapter was really difficult for me to write plus I had a total lack of motivation when it comes to writing or really anything else.

**Shreds of lives**

**Never thought to feel this way**

Leon was standing in the med-bay stitching the cuts he had left on Draco´s cheek. The vampire was limply lying there with his eyes closed and too exhausted to show much of a reaction to anything apart from occasionally whimpering quietly. In fact Leon wasn´t even sure if he was still awake and perceiving anything but most probably his mind was in a dazed state between consciousness and unconsciousness where it was impossible to tell to which one it was closer.

Even so the whole situation still made Leon feel absolutely great, almost ecstatic – or maybe not just almost – and he knew this feeling would most probably last for quite a while. He loved the sight of his victim´s destroyed and blood-covered body that appeared to be almost dead and calmly finished tending the wounds on his cheek moving on to some other bleedings that hadn´t completely stopped yet.

The vampire had lost a considerable amount of blood during interrogation but luckily it wasn´t life-threatening as they might still need him alive and with some blood-surrogate he'd soon be waking up again. After all they hadn´t got a lot of information yet and also apart from the exact location of this hideout in Palm-City there could possibly still be a few things Leon might want to know later on and there was no reason to let Draco die. No, he´d keep his sweet little vampire for a while.

Wrapping bandages around a deep wound on Draco´s shoulder Leon was savoring every moment and the still so vivid and fresh memories of his captive´s desperate struggle to pull free from the chains, the tears of terror in his eyes, his panic panting breath, his helpless cries of pain and his completely powerless exposure to Leon. Those imaginations made the lizard´s thin lips curl to an evil smile. To him there was nothing that felt better than causing and watching another's suffering. The more it hurt his victim the better it made Leon feel and yet something was imperfect – only slightly but still. Leon just didn´t know what it was and he wasn´t sure if he should care to figure it out. In fact it was even a little disturbing.

The chameleon shook his head pushing those thoughts aside and continued to tend the injuries he had caused only a short while ago. Gradually the vampire´s breath was slowing further down and growing calmer. Maybe he had finally lost consciousness if he hadn't already done do earlier.

There were a few more injuries to take care of then Leon was almost finished. After handcuffing his captive to the bed he covered him up but kept standing there instead of tidying up the mess he had left in his torture camber.

Absent-minded Leon was running his fingers through the vampire´s curly fur. The thing that was imperfect was that this wasn´t Riley. Just why did Riley´s disloyalty bother him so much? In fact Leon wouldn´t need to care. He had had his fun and got at least part of the informations he had wanted to have and yet he didn´t manage to be completely pleased with the situation. Although it gave him a great feeling something was awkward. He just didn´t really know what it was and this was disturbing.

Actually there was no reason to dwell on it but somehow he couldn´t help doing so. The reason why it was Draco lying there in a state close to death and yet not close enough to escape his fate and not Riley was betrayal and loyalty towards the wrongest person possible. The vampire had truly kept quiet for a long time thinking he´d protect a friend till he had had to realize how untrue everything was he had had faith in and love for. And while Draco had refused to give away information on the behalf of a false friend Riley had gotten away unharmed. Despite all the tears, pleading to stop and screams of pain and despite the blind naivety and groundless trust that had been the reason of his refusal this was actually brave. It almost was a pity.

xxx

Wolf and Panther had been showing Silja around in their base and she had to admit that some things had really caught her interest. However, the thing she thought was the strangest was how almost easy she found it to come out of her mental shell. Most of her fear had vanished in a mysterious way she hadn´t believed to be possible. The whole situation seemed almost natural to her though it was three years ago that she had felt anything vaguely similar.

A thing she wouldn´t comprehend was her sudden almost trust in the two mercenaries. To her it seemed irrational to feel this way. Why of all people would she trust some mercenaries when it was her lack of confidence in people that made her keep away from everyone. But it wasn´t only her disability to have faith in another´s benign intentions that condemned her to lead a life in loneliness but also her paranoid fear of going through the same things again she had experienced three years ago. What you didn´t have you couldn´t lose. This was a simple fact that had kept her from living.

Yet something made her believe Wolf and Panther meant no harm in her and it was only now that she realized how much she missed trusting someone. But why would she consider trusting them, she hardly knew them after all. Most probably they had saved her live by taking her with them as she was rather sure Riley would have found her sooner or later and every thought of it was utterly frightening but even so this didn´t mean a thing.

Finally they reached the docking-bay but not on the shortest way possible. After all neither Wolf nor Panther knew what Leon was doing right now and they couldn´t possibly tell if he was finished interrogating his prisoner/ having fun. Therefore they had avoided every place where he could be or everywhere close enough to hear anything of what he was doing in spite of some closed doors in between when showing Silja their base. And even if they hadn´t known that it would deeply upset her they wouldn´t have been keen on watching or hearing Leon go after his hobby.

"And that´s the Wolfen." Wolf introduced his ship proudly.

Even though Silja didn´t know a lot about space-fighters and didn´t have any particular interest in them she couldn´t help stare at the ship. She had never seen any ship that looked quite that dangerous and impressive wondering if this impression was true or if it was just a matter of the fancy shape and colors.

"Ain´t she baeutiful?"

"So, the Wolfen is a girl?" Even though it was a completely unimportant thing she remembered to have wondered about before Silja considered for a moment why ships needed to be female. To her they weren't.

"Sure. She´s his girlfriend. He doesn´t get anyone else." Panther explained smiling mockingly.

"Who said I wanted anyone else. She´s far less complicated than any real girl." Wolf replied growling at the feline.

"Yeah but there are things you can not do with her, right?" the cat argued.

"On the other hand she´s the only girl who won´t get mad if he cheats on her." Silja noted still a bit timidly.

"Oh how horrible. I cheat on my Wolfen." the lupine remarked sarcastically rolling his eye.

Meanwhile Silja looked at the other two fighters. One was identical to Wolf´s girlfriend the other one had a rose painted on it that took her aback. So that obviously was Panther´s ship and the third one belonged to someone she didn´t want to think of.

"Anything the matter?" Panther inquired realizing the change of expression on Silja´s face. She closed her eyes for a moment trying to push her troubling thoughts aside and answered with a smile.

"No, it´s nothing."

"Didn´t look like nothing though. You sure?"

"Yes, I´m fine. So that´s your ship?" Silja replied motioning at the fighter with the rose on it.

"Yeah, that´s mine. How do you like it?" the feline answered assuming that it was better not to inquire again what the jackal-girl had been thinking about just a moment ago.

"Um..." she tried to think of any proper reply but annoyingly her mind stayed remarkably blank. In fact Silja thought that a painted rose on a ship was something completely useless and looked awkward but she didn´t want to put it that way. "I guess it makes it easier to tell them from one another."

"Yeah, and Leon and I don´t need any symbol on our Wolfen because other than Panther we can tell left from right and know where we landed our fighters."Wolf added making the feline glare at him but not because of the claim he couldn´t tell left from right but because of his carelessness.

Silja looked down at the ground chewing on her lip. Every mention of the lizard made her feel sad and filthy but it appeared she´d stay with StarWolf in their base for a while or at least this was her only chance to survive and she liked it here. So she´d have to choose her life and maybe even something like happiness or her conscience and no matter how selfish, weak and cowardly it made her feel she tended towards the first option.

As Wolf realized that Panther didn´t mean his remark about being unable to tell left from right by reproachfully looking at him he gave the feline a confused look. "What?"

"You got as much empathy as a brick." the cat accused him of only making the lupine look even more confused.

"So what´s wrong with that?" Wolf wanted to know still not getting what Panther meant as he motioned at Silja who quickly tried to fake a smile. "Her? I didn´t do a thing to her." Wolf complained no less confused than before.

"Alright, just forget it." The feline replied resignedly shaking his head.

"Wait. It´s not just because I mentioned Leon, is it?" Wolf finally figured out slightly annoyed. "Look, he is here too so there´s no point in me not even mentioning his name. She´ll just have to accept it and that´s it."

"Yeah, I know." Silja replied with an awkward smile on her face.

"Alright, fine." Panther agreed. He knew that Wolf was right but the smile on Siljas face also looked clearly faked.

"By the way, he should be finished by now." Wolf noted. "Maybe we should go and see if he found anything out about Riley or his employers."

"And Silja?" Panther wanted to know.

"I... don´t mind him." the jackal-girl lied.

"Alright, then let´s go." Wolf said leafing the docking-bay.

xxx

Leon indeed was finished with everything by now apart from telling Wolf and Panther his news wondering if he should go and look for them or just wait till they would return from wherever they had disappeared to. He decided to choose the second option and sat down lazily eying the door.

However, he didn´t need to wait as long as he had expected and soon heard footsteps and voices that grew louder and clearer as they came closer. Wolf and Panther entered followed by the jackal who kept a few steps behind them eying the lizard with a mixture of fear and remote dislike.

"So have you been successful?" Wolf wanted to know taking a seat.

"Nothing about Riley´s employers. It seems only he knows who they are, so I should probably have a talk with him too. However, we do have two locations where he might be hiding." Leon explained quite casually.

"Alright, and where might he be hiding?" Wolf ask impatiently as the chameleon kept quiet.

"Possibly the space station we´ve already been to but that´s unlikely or in an underground base near Palm-City on Titania. I don´t have an exact location of this base yet though, but I guess my little vampire can tell me."

"He... is alive? And can still talk?" the feline inquired.

"Yup, I don´t have any exact location yet, so he is. But I don´t think he can talk right now. He´s asleep."

"Did you find out anything else of importance?" Wolf wanted to know.

"No and I don´t think he knows much. We can´t know for sure if Riley is in any of those two places either but right now we don´t have anything better so going there and having a look is all we can do." the lizard replied.

"Hmm... and you think the chances that Riley is hiding on Titania are better than that he fled to this space station. Then that´s where we should head to tomorrow." Wolf considered.

"Yes, but Riley might bear in mind that we could know of this hideout and then he mightn´t show up there." Leon noted.

"So, to sum it up, we do not have a lot if anything at all." Panther pointed out.

"We might have a lot if we get Riley but if we don´t then we are back to sitting around and waiting. I could talk to my vampire once more but I doubt he knows a thing." Leon replied.

For a moment they all fell quiet each one trying to think of a solution to their problem and each one being unsuccessful. Leon kept alternately looking at Wolf, Panther and Silja. "Your guest doesn´t know a thing either, does she?" he ask Wolf.

"Nothing that would help us find Riley or his employers." Wolf replied.

"Um... Riley and all the others had to leave that flat quite in a hurry and most probably none of them returned anymore..." Silja considered. "So if there was any clue as to where Riley might have gone or as to who hired him it might still be there."

"Unlikely." Wolf contradicted her. "We made quite a mess. There´ll be so much police that everything of importance is gone by now."

"Alright... but... there is a faint chance they forgot something." she insisted.

"There´s a bigger chance that Riley is really in Palm-City or in the space station and we can´t go to all places at once."

"That´s not what I mean. There´s no point in me coming with you to Palm-City. Therefore I won´t have anything useful to do and could quite as well go back to that flat and look around."

"Yeah, and get caught by some police while snooping around. No, you stay here. We´ve already got enough trouble." the lupine argued.

"First of all I´m not going to get caught and further more even if I get caught there´s not a lot that could happen." the jackal-girl reasoned for the first time giving the impression of being halfway self-confident. "I mightn´t be allowed to be there but it´s no severe crime. So how could I get into trouble and even if I do how could I get you into trouble?"

"You didn´t tell us exactly why you know Riley but there´s some sort of connection between the both of you the police might find out about and that would be enough to get you into serious trouble if you get caught." Wolf explained.

"Yeah, it´s not alike Riley will have rented that flat under his real name. Thus there´s no connection." she contradicted him.

"Even so you cannot be sure about them not finding out." Wolf argued showing irritation over her sudden determination but Silja wasn´t about to give in. She could no longer just stand there and watch her faith. There were so many contradictory things going on in her mind and even though she knew she was she didn´t want to be a coward and didn´t want to feel that useless anymore. However, Wolf had seen how unprofessional she had acted in both fights she had been involved in and didn´t quite believe her capable of not screwing everything up and even if there was no high risk for them in her getting caught he didn´t like the thought of it.

"Well, if I make sure I don´t get caught then they won´t find anything out and I won´t get into trouble." Silja insisted although she wasn´t halfway as confident as she´d have liked to be and basically knew that putting her idea into practice might be a risky and stupid thing to do.

"And how do you want to make it sure?! You can´t and don´t tell me you know what you´re doing ´cause you don´t!"

"Sure I do! Apart from that I´m at a higher risk if Riley escapes than if I go there and maybe find leads where Riley has gone to or what he is up to." the jackal argued glaring at the lupine.

"But you are not going to find a thing there ´cause there ain´t nothing left to find! So it´s an unnecessary risk and completely pointless!" Wolf growled. Just how could she be so blind about the most obvious things and insist on something that stupid and useless?

"Wolf, calm down and stop shouting." Panther tried to interfere before Wolf would say something rude Silja might take too seriously and then continued addressing her. "See, we might find Riley anyway either in Palm-City or in this space-station and if we don´t we can still think about what to do next later on. But I´m sure it won´t take us very long to finally get rid of that rat once and for all."

She looked at him being not quite convinced. "Alright, if Riley is in Palm-City or in the space station what I want to do is useless but if he isn´t it mightn´t be. Apart from that all of you are at a much bigger risk when trying to find Riley on Titania or in that space-station than I´ll be, so why can´t I try?"

"Because what you´re up to is useless while we´re up to something that might actually work." the lupine argued. "And we´re not at a bigger risk because we do know what we´re doing. So why can´t you just stay here and stop trying to cause unnecessary trouble?"

"You don´t need to bother! You..." Why would any of them care? It suddenly seemed so strange to Silja. She was no risk for any of them and therefore there was no rational reason why they´d mind her get into trouble and there was no rational reason why they let her stay in their base and the only reason why anyone would get mad at her because she got herself into trouble was because it bothered this someone one way or another. For a short moment the girl hesitated blinking in confusion. "Alright. I´ll stay here." she agreed. Maybe she would. She'd still have to figure that out.

"Alright? Is that all? Once of a sudden." Wolf ask looking at her sceptically. Just a moment ago she had seemed so determined and now she had just given in. It simply seemed unrealistic as if she had only said it to end the discussion and would do as she pleased anyway. Yet her expression seemed honest – maybe. He didn´t quite know what to make of it.

"Fine! So then everything is decided." Panther exclaimed. "I for my part am hungry. I´m not needed anymore, am I?"

"No, just go." Wolf replied turning towards Silja again. "Listen. Don´t just say that to end the discussion. You´re hopefully serious about it."

Chewing on her lip Silja looked down. "Just because it really is unlikely that there is anything. There wouldn't have been any risk for you. I'm not stupid. Even if I would have got myself into trouble I wouldn't have mentioned you or your hideout. Even if I wouldn't... all I want is Riley's death so why would I do so?" She answered figuring that most probably this was the reason why he minded her going there so much but one thing she didn't understand was why she felt so disappointed about it.

Wolf nodded. Somehow even though she was utterly unprofessional and prone to get herself into every trouble possible this was nothing he would have thought of her anyway but he needed to be careful and also apart from that he didn't like the idea.

"So we get started tomorrow morning?" Leon interrupted them. "Luckily Titania is quite close to Fichina right now. We won´t need to fly all the way to the other side of Lylat. Like that it´ll take approximately three hours to get there." Fichinian years were longer than Titanian ones, though the planet was moving faster but it also was further away from the sun, and that's why the time it took to travel from one planet to another varied.

xxx

The Great Fox was gradually getting closer to the poisonous green planet in front of it. There had been strange activities on Venom recently and in addition to the assassinations and such attempts and general Pepper's death this indeed was a worrisome fact and StarFox had been sent in. Out of mere luck and due to Krystall's telepathic abilities they were all still breathing and very much alive but it had been close and it was obvious someone had tried to get them out of his way. Yet Slippy could still not pilot his Arwing due to an injured arm – not that he ever could, at least according to Falco.

"We should arrive in approximately three minutes." Rob informed them.

"Alright. Is everyone ready? Remember that we don't know what to expect so be careful." Fox reminded the rest of his team. Since Peppy was getting too old and his eyesight was no longer good enough to fight battles in his Arwing and Slippy was injured they'd only be three pilots that day and they didn't know exactly what they were facing. Were there still enough Venomian remnants left to organize all the killings that had occurred and left the Cornerian army more vulnerable than it used to be or where they facing a new threat? However, one thing was clear: On the surface of this planet activities where taking place that needed to be stopped or else they'd sooner or later pose a serious threat to Corneria.

"Sure, always ready to kick someones ass." Falco replied impatiently waiting for finally flying a mission again as they hadn't had any particularly exciting work to do lately and he had sever problems coping with boredom.

"Yes, let's do this but be careful out there." Krystall said.

"Hey, we don't have Slip with us, so what could go wrong?" Falco shrugged.

"It's not like I am the only one ever getting into trouble." the frog protested.

"Nah, but the only one who constantly does it in a ridiculously dumb way."

"That's enough, okay? Let's just head for our Arwings and be ready when we get close enough to the planet to launch." Krystall suggested starting to walk off with Fox and Falco following her. "Seriously, Falco, do you always need to do this?"

"What? He should be used to it by now, don't ya think?" the bird replied indifferently.

"Let's focus on that mission alright. I'm going to land on the surface of the planet at where we assume is an entrance. I need at least one of you in the air, maybe both. We'll see as soon as we get there." Fox brought their attention back to the forthcoming mission.

"We have arrived." Rob informed them as they reached their Arwings and got into their fighters ready to take off and three blue and white ships were launched heading towards the surface of Venom.

xxx

In the time zone of Fichina where StarWolf's mother ship was situated it was getting late the sun having set a few hours ago. Leon was heading for the med-bay assuming that his prisoner must have waken up from unconsciousness by now. After all they could use an exact location of Riley's hideout if they were to set off for Titania the next morning.

Flinching in fright Draco sat up in bed as he thought to have heard someone approaching and shuffled away from the sound as far as he possibly could. As he had done uncountable times in the past maybe one or two hours before, he once more tried to slid his hand out of the handcuffs that chained him to the bed with no more success than in any of his previous attempts. In helpless despair he tried to pull away with no other result than a searing pain shooting all through his body forcing him to lay back down as he once again had to realize the futility of his attempts to escape this hell.

"Hi, my little vampire." a sickening voice greeted him as a lizard came into view making him forget to breathe for a moment as his heart seemed to freeze with fear only to accelerate the next moment.

With delight Leon watched the expression of utter despair and panic on his captive's face that brought back the memories of todays late noon and early afternoon and the pleasure the lizard had felt inflicting pain on his prisoner. "Just a few more things." he said as he reached the trembling vampire. "This hideout near Palm-City, where exactly is it?"

"Um, east, I think. It's underground, beneath an old building a little outside of the city." Draco explained hastily. Why couldn't the lizard just go away again?

"Anything else worth knowing about it? Like are there any self-aiming guns, booby traps or anything else that is meant to kill us?"

"Not as far as I know." Draco replied quietly lowering his eyes and whimpering in fright the next moment as he felt a cold blade pressing against his throat.

"Don't you lie to me, is that clear!?" Leon demanded slightly scratching the vampire's skin with his knife.

"Alright, there are guns and... most probably something is gonna blow up... I don't know any detail. The actual entrance is a hatch in the basement of the building but, well, it's one of the things likely to explode." Draco caved panting for breath as the blade was removed from his throat. "Please, I don't know. I only was there once and... Riley used it a lot earlier but not anymore when I was with him."

"Now, was that so difficult? What do you think the point in lying to me is, anyway? I won't die there just because you claim Riley didn't take any precautions but it's gonna have consequences if I find out you lied and even if I did die where's that gonna get you? You'd still be locked up and, well, you'd starve, wouldn't you?" Leon pointed out.

Right now Draco didn't even know who he more wanted to die – Leon or Riley – and what he wanted didn't make a difference either as there was nothing he could do about it. He could only hope they'd somehow kill each other but he knew he'd not be that lucky.

"So then." Leon said sitting down on the bed beside Draco making the vampire try to creep even further back. "You were there once, so you know how this hideout looks like from inwards."

"I... um... I guess so."

"Fine, then tell me."

xxx

"Well, and Panther joined us about six years ago." Wolf explained to Silja.

"And this is before those others left or afterwards?" she wanted to know.

"It's after Pigma was kicked out but before Oikony left." he replied.

"But Oikony was kind of useless, wasn't he and Pigma, well, I don't know him but..." Panther joined their conversation.

"Yup, Oikony was useless. Not the most skilled pilot, annoying as hell and never could remember the simplest of things. I know no one apart from him who managed to forget his blaster going on a ground-mission and then trying to draw it realizing it wasn't there and panicking completely. I'm so glad he decided to leave. Wouldn't have taken me long anymore to make him leave anyways after all the times he screwed up and all the gabbling about Andross who was long dead by then." Wolf confirmed. "And Pigma, well, be glad you never got to know him. Better pilot than Oikony but stinking, absolutely brainless, lazy and disloyal."

"So, which of those many reasons made you kick him off the team?" Silja ask.

"The reason was his disloyalty, but honestly sooner or later the rest of his personality traits and his smell would have been enough too. A couple of months after the Lylat-wars we run out of money because we lost and dead employers don't pay well and because our Wolfen weren't in the best conditions and had needed repair. As I couldn't pay my team-mates it was only a matter of time till the greedy swine would turn against us as there were enough people willing to pay for our deaths. Therefore I kept an eye on him, well and my assumption was confirmed and I prevented Pigma from killing us before he could try. He fled and kept away from us from then on. Rumors say he has been killed during the Apparoid-invasion, but who knows." Wolf answered. "We're a better team now than we used to be when we were still the four of us."

"And what made you want to join StarWolf?" Silja wanted to know addressing Panther.

"It's kind of a long story but the short version of it is that I had made quite a few mistakes that had gotten me into trouble with some not very nice people and every try to solve my problems only got me deeper in. The whole situation seemed rather hopeless when StarWolf happened to be sent there to take those guys out. Well, due to that ape they kind of screwed up and as it seemed to be my only chance I came in to help them and, well, then Wolf offered me to join StarWolf and I agreed." the feline replied.

"And happy with your choice?"

"Yes, I am now. At the beginning it wasn't that easy to be. Leon didn't like me, I mean not at all, and, well, he wasn't too nice towards me. We came to terms with each other after a while though. In a way we're friends now, but I can't exactly say he's actually nice now." Panther explained.

"And, what made you decide to become a mercenary?" Silja ask addressing Wolf again. She was asking a lot of questions and he was beginning to wonder why. Obviously because she really wanted to know the answers to them but he couldn't help thinking she also did so to avoid talking about Riley or why she knew him. However much she seemed to like to get to know something about the others pasts her own was something she consistently tried to avoid talking about. Usually Wolf should have been tired of all those questions by now but somehow he didn't mind her going on and on with asking them.

"I've always wanted to become one ever since I can remember but of course my idea of what it would be like was completely unrealistic. Yet the thing that actually made me decide to do so weren't as much of a free choice as a row of unfortunate events." Wolf begun to explain but before he could go into any detail he was interrupted by Leon entering the room. "Leon! Do you know where exactly we'll find that hideout on Titania now?"

"Yup, it shouldn't be difficult to find it actually and if Riley is there it should be quite possible to get him, provided my vampire doesn't lie." the lizard replied.

"Provided he doesn't lie? And how likely is it he does?" Panther wanted to know. Somehow he absolutely didn't like the idea of running into a trap again. They had done too often in the past few days and he was really getting sick of it.

"I don't think he lied – well he tried but in a stupid and obvious way – but how to be hundred percent sure? Anyway it's more likely that Riley simply isn't there."

"So what did you find out about that hideout?" Wolf ask.

"East of Palm-City beneath an old building, about the same size as the building, a few guns and booby traps and there should be another hatch outside the building that's covered by sand from where a ship can take off to escape." Leon explained.

"How many enemies are gonna be there if that's where Riley is hiding?" Wolf wanted to know.

"Not more than fourteen, probably less if some of them are elsewhere."

"So that's what's left of them. But then we're still outnumbered and they will most probably be prepared this time." Panther noted.

"That's true but some of them have very little combat-experience and probably can't assess what they're doing. Apart from that they mightn't all be there or not any of them might be there at all." the lizard answered.

"Alright, then that's where we'll go tomorrow." Wolf said and got up. "But now, I think I gonna get some sleep."

"Me too." Panther replied as they were heading for their bedrooms.

Luckily the Wolf'sFang, mothership of StarWolf, was designed for four people as this was a number of pilots of which many mercenary-teams consisted. That's why there was one bedroom left for Silja to sleep in.

"Better don't oversleep this time, Panther." Leon noted disappearing into his bedroom.

"No one even told me when we'll get started tomorrow. Wolf, when will we?" the feline ask.

"Let's say six o'clock." the lupine replied.

"Six o'clock. Why always so early?" Panther complained before entering his bedroom.

Wolf sighed. The cat's sleeping patterns were annoying but most probably not nearly as much as his own sleeping patterns annoyed the feline. Whatever, he'd just get some sleep now. Just as Wolf was about to enter his bedroom a faint voice stopped him. "Wolf?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Silja replied looking at him a little sheepishly. "Just... Thank you... for saving my life, for letting me stay here and... so on." For a moment they just stood there looking at one another without having the faintest idea why they did so. All Silja felt was genuine gratitude and affection as they looked deeply into each others eye(s) and suddenly Wolf's lavender eye didn't seem as hard as usual to her and he once more realized how beautiful and full of life and expression her eyes were but this time without realizing the similarity to something that used to awake a boiling anger inside of him. All he saw this time was her and not whatever she reminded him of.

It took him a while to realize how awkward he was behaving and to snap out of this strange trance. "You're welcome." Wolf simply replied wondering why her eyes made him act and feel so strange. Why would he think of her eyes as beautiful anyway or feel as if he could spent hours simply looking into them – wouldn't that be rather boring? And why was it that he was so obsessed with her eyes in two more or less contradicting ways? Probably he just hadn't gotten enough sleep lately – yes, that'd be the reason. He simply was tired.

I might change the title of this story till the next update. I just wanted to mention this to make sure you'll find this story again. Anyways, thank you for reading.


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